WHY IT MATTERS: recurring theme for the past few hundred years: you won't have jobs become technology will make you irrelevant. TRUE. Case in point, more than 80% of population was working on a farm less than 100 years ago. Today, 2%. Yet, we all jobs, just DIFFERENT ones. What will yours be in 2050?...

WHY IT MATTERS: salesforce has created an interactive website to help its users leverage artificial intelligence that is built into its products. Clever.

WHY IT MATTERS: the last paragraph is interesting as it shows how deep Retail will change in coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS: every developer - web or not - should apply those principles. Otherwise how else is the web ever going to be safe?

WHY IT MATTERS: it is difficult to develop AI systems but often very easy to use them (think of Google voice assistant of face recognition in Google Photos). This article explains the AI features that salesforce.com has built in its new software.

WHY IT MATTERS: there are so many solutions you can leverage out there to build apps and solutions, why would anyone build their own?

WHY IT MATTERS: cameras are everywhere - phones, streets, home, office - and AI enables new capabilities that can present massive surveillance possibilities as well as personal protection and real-time data. This very well done video - as is the case with most VOX videos - should give you a good rundown of the plus and minuses...

WHY IT MATTER: the article explains that AI image recognition is maturing with improvements that enable identification based on multiple criteria to improve accuracy and explain explain how an AI has come up with its results.

WHY IT MATTERS: this post highlights 2 importants facts about AI. First, it requires a lot of manual work to train the system. Second, who would have thought 10 years ago that your job title would be something like "Data labelling guru"...? Goes to show how deep AI will transform life and work...

WHY IT MATTERS: marketplaces are the hot topic and this document provides an interesting rundown of the players.

WHY IT MATTERS: a survey conducted by LeanIX, an EA tool maker, conducted mostly on IT and EA professionals, is thus very biaised. Nevertheless the results are interesting. As an EA practionner of 20 years, I know EA can bring value if 2 conditions are met

1- business should lead EA, not the CIO

2- EA is a community, not a business unit or a group within IT

More on this view later, stay tuned...

WHY IT MATTERS: essential read for any CEO to know why they should ask questions and what questions to ask their techno geeks.

This article goes hand in hand with this old one about the need for a technology annual report: http://fmcs.digital/blog/memo-to-the-ceo-why-we-need-an-annual-report-for/

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the true power of AI: analyzing images and sound and other data that can be converted into images. This was simply not possible before and required humans to do so until about 2011. This is why AI is such a big revolution.

WHY IT MATTERS: we take it for granted because 90% of the population in Canada has access to the Internet. This summary of facts about Internet adoption should make us all realize that: 1) the growth has been very fast 2) not everyone in the world has the same chance 3) newer technologies based on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and soon AR/VR will leverage this infrastructure to deliver even more transformation

WHY IIT MATTERS: a reminder that the value of data is not going down.

WHY IT MATTERS: protecting privacy is a difficult task, sometimes an impossible one. Case in point this long list of sites you have to go through to opt-out or delete your data. We need a better solution...

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a survey so all about perceptions - but perception is often reality in this era of fake news. The survey results provide useful insights into the fears and the powers that people see in AI today. Very useful when you approach change management in AI projects ...

WHY IT MATTERS: few organisations maximize their use of the data they have. One source that is often overlooked in Google Analytics, especially in smaller organizations (but ask around in yours) to see who even knows what you can gather from GA - I bet you'll be surprised... 

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation affects our privacy in many ways. With xmas gifting around the corner, you may find this list useful ... or creepy! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: essential tools for any self-respecting geek. Easy to check this out, look in the extension toolbar of their chrome browser and you'll probably see BuiltWith... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: we expected cloud computing data centers, like those of Google, protect our data and keep it private. This article dives into the potential issues that can occur when server hardware are compromised at the hardware level - within the silicon that powers the servers and often contains millions lines of code that can be hacked. The post presents a new open-source chip called Titan that should help protect against those threats. Important, essential, should be everywhere.

WHY IT MATTERS: cybersecurity is a relatively new field of expertise and requires specialists. This paper presents some of them and it is interesting to ask whether you need those skills in your organization and if you do, where you can find them...

WHY IT MATTERS: retail technologies will support most of the retail shopping experience changes in the coming years. Here is a review of the main players in Israel.

WHY IT MATTERS: useful comparison tool of 19 marketing automation solutions. Obviously biased in favor of Vbout but useful if you take it with the appropriate grain of salt.

WHY IT MATTERS: important work for all the digital technology companies in Montreal and QC in general.

WHY IT MATTERS: Acquia has been playing catchup to Adobe and sitecore in the WCMS platform game and it looks like they have listened to most urgent complaints: CDN, automation, personalization. eCommerce remains weak.

WHY IT MATTERS: order fulfillment and delivery is the last remaining hurdle to eCommerce. Loblaws in Canada will pilot a micro-fulfillment solution from TakeOff that impressed me last year at Shoptalk. In short, they create an automated back-store where eCommerce orders are prepared with a huge amount of automation. The question remains whether the economics is better for micro-fulfillment or if centralized warehouse fulfillment with hub-and-spoke delivery is better suited for high volume / low margin eCommerce that grocery is about. Thus this "test" by Loblaws. Note that Sobeys has decided in favor of more centralized ocado-driven automated warehouse and Metro remains with the more traditional decentralized (and manual) store-based pick-pack-deliver process. Given the low volume of orders for online grocery in Canada I remain partisan of a store-based manual approach but the economics I got from TakeOff was promising. Below additional links if you want to read more about takeoff and ocado.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/a-new-store-experience-windowless-automated-micro-warehouse-with-hyperlocal-presence-may-be-the-future-of-grocery-shopping-takeoff-solution-suggests-this-may-be-the-case-robots-ai/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/video-of-the-inside-of-ocados-robotic-warehouse-where-thousands-of-robots-pack-groceries-retail-robots/

https://www.takeoff.com/why-takeoff

WHY IT MATTERS: it is bound to happen and when it does we must be ready to adapt. Here are some interesting analysis regarding the digital services industry as a whole.

WHY IT MATTERS: every device being connected to the internet brings with it the possibility of remote monitoring. Here, doorbells equipped with cameras can detect who's at the door and determine who is trick or tricking at Halloween. But it can also detect burglaries, car crashes and other common neighbourhood events. Should we be concerned or feel more secured?

In the context of businesses, this can be extended to employee surveillance and possibly spying. Fun times ahead as the number of connected IOT devices is set to explode x10 in coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS: robots are entering hostile environment of construction sites. Here the autonomous robot that has been featured in funny and creepy videos in the past has been deployed to document construction projects over time. Couple this with drones that can film exterior shots and robots that facilitate carrying tools and dirt, you can expect the digital transformation to enter the physical world in a big way in coming years.

- boston dynamics robot videos: http://fmcs.digital/?s=boston

- kryole carry-all: https://k-ryole.com/Catalogue/chantier-chariot-electrique-manutention-sans-effort-anti-tms-pro-sqvt/

We've been working on isolating the 1,500 services that power Monzo. The sheer size and complexity of our platform made this difficult. But by protecting us against compromised services, it makes Monzo more secure. 

In the Security team at Monzo, one of our goals is to move towards a completely zero trust platform. This means that in theory, we'd be able to run malicious code inside our platform with no risk – the code wouldn't be able to interact with anything dangerous without the security team granting special access.

The idea is that we don't want to trust just anything simply because it's inside our platform. Instead, we want individual services to be trusted based on a short and deliberate list of which other services they're allowed to interact with. This makes an attack substantially more difficult.

WHY IT MATTERS: this short post explains the lengths you have to go through to secure a microservice-based application. Basically there is no trust between services, making hacking attempts difficult because success would require a large number of breaks. Interesting to see the effort required to deploy this for 1500+ services and not impact performance or developer productivity... 

WHY IT MATTERS: very interesting read that shows how much there is to consider for one small component of eCommerce, drop shipping. The larger point behind this post is that every feature of eCommerce solutions, from catalog, carts, payment, shipping, fulfillment, etc. are being unbundled into dedicated products. Here avasam provides services for dropshipping. This follows a larger trend of solutions as they mature: you start to see enough volume / complexity to warrant dedicated solutions.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are platforms that try to integrate as many of these components into a single, integrated solution.

 

Some interesting posts on bundling/unbundling:

- craigslist uunbundling: https://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/345941486/the-spawn-of-craigslist-like-most-vcs-that-focus

- search bundling in china: https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/8/1/app-unbundling-search-and-discovery

- productivity / excel unbundling: https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2019/9/27/new-productivity

WHY IT MATTERS: technology is tackling manpower shortage in retail. Here an example of how cameras, robots and drones are leveraged to perform out-of-stock detection on store shelves. When you realize that certain store may have 25000 or more products, the time required to identify out-of-stocks for replenishment and the lost sales makes those technologies useful and cost effective.

WHY IT MATTERS: back-office manual tasks are being replaced - or at very least augmented - by new technologies including RPA, IA, AI. This report is a summary.

WHY IT MATTERS: mobile first is a reality, especially if you sell online, so you have to be mobile friendly and present. However, building an app is not a wise investment it seems anymore as people don't know how to find/discover new apps and only 32% download apps to their phone. My conclusion: make sure your technologies and designs are mobile friendly and embed your content in a s many popular mobile apps as possible - Facebook, Amazon of course but also others, see in the report.

WHY IT MATTERS: this reference of BI tools is quite impressive in its breadth and depth. Very useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: hiring technical resources is difficult because of the impact that bad hires have on organizations. Looking forward to read this guide and see what it contains as I believe we are in dire needed of some standards and benchmarks...

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a community created reference that I leverage all the time when asked about AWS services. You should too.

WHY IT MATTERS: the trends is clear, technology drives a number of business innovations in Retail. Questions is: is there a business model behind those innovations? Not always unfortunately... Nevertheless, useful insights about what's trending.

WHY IT MATTERS: there is so much information that you can capture from free or almost free online tools like Alexa that it is a shame not to use them

Observable is a web-first interactive notebook for data analysis, visualization, and exploration. By bringing data science from the command line to the web, we can make it more accessible, more collaborative, and more effective. We can equip the world’s largest developer community with the world’s most powerful medium for communication.

WHY IT MATTERS: now an essential tool in my box, I've been a fan of dynamic notebooks such as jupyter notebooks for python or even GIT-based collaborative documents. Try this one out, as javascript is very easy to learn and play with.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a very good review of top small & medium business eCommerce solution, which can actually be a great reference for departments or BUs of large organization. IT lacks in one major area which is key for large organization: customization, data and integration to corporate systems. This is where those small SaaS solutions often fail as they deliver all-in-one solutions but fail to live well in large corporate IT environments where ERP, WMS, OMS PIM and other solutions exist and where master data often resides. 

WHY IT MATTERS: text generation technology has been around for quite some time and has been improving at exponential rate. The result: it is now possible to get very good sentence auto-complete, as evidenced by Gmail (try it). What is MIND BLOWING is that text prediction has now entered the real of machines that can write for us. Still limited but within those limits, quite impressive...

You open up a database of pictures used to train artificial intelligence systems. At first, things seem straightforward. You’re met with thousands of images: apples and oranges, birds, dogs, horses, mountains, clouds, houses, and street signs. But as you probe further into the dataset, people begin to appear: cheerleaders, scuba divers, welders, Boy Scouts, fire walkers, and flower girls. Things get strange: A photograph of a woman smiling in a bikini is labeled a “slattern, slut, slovenly woman, trollop.” A young man drinking beer is categorized as an “alcoholic, alky, dipsomaniac, boozer, lush, soaker, souse.” A child wearing sunglasses is classified as a “failure, loser, non-starter, unsuccessful person.” You’re looking at the “person” category in a dataset called ImageNet, one of the most widely used training sets for machine learning. 

Something is wrong with this picture. 

Where did these images come from? Why were the people in the photos labeled this way? What sorts of politics are at work when pictures are paired with labels, and what are the implications when they are used to train technical systems?

In short, how did we get here? 

WHY IT MATTERS: facial recognition machine learning and deep learning AI systems are trained using millions of images. These images often are labelled manually by users with little or no supervision or oversight. Moreover they contain biaises that are transferred into the algorithms they train. This article and accompanying application that I've reviewed recently provide insights into this topic and should give pause to those that want to implement AI systems without appropriate data, checks and balances.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/imagenet-roulette-facerecognition-website-uses-a-neural-network-to-classify-your-picture-using-imagenet-categories-depending-on-the-upload-i-went-from-sheik-to-psycolinguist-proving-ai/

WHY IT MATTERS: artificial intelligence raises a number of fundamental issues from biais, to discrimination and surveillance. This chart presents those issues as they were raised in 2019. The article provides more details and the video additional insights into the matter.

WHY IT MATTERS: always great insights by RSG, this one is same. The net net: CDP is a great but immature technology with too many use cases and no solution that delivers on all of them. If you have a use case that mandates a CDP, go ahead and pick the best of breed solution that suits your needs. Otherwise, wait. So true.

Listening to the webinar I could not help and wonder: who in an organization should be leading a CDP implementation? The use case scream marketing but the technology requires IT skills and expertise. When will the role of marketingTechnologist finally become a reality?...

WHY IT MATTERS: I've been playing around with retailers for 24 years trying to convince them to sell online via eCommerce. Most push back because of the cost, the tools, the change it requires in processes and people. It is much simpler and more reassuring to apply existing best practices (a coupon here, a discount there) and not change much. Short term, returns are better, profits remain, shareholders are happy and everyone gets their bonus. This short article reminds us that Amazon has not reinvented the wheel, just built it with a new kind of material.

WHY IT MATTERS: SOA was a great idea, difficult to implement. Microservices appear to be the answer. This article provides the required background to understand why SOA did not work and what microservices need to be a success.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI may actually kill the job of software development!

WHY IT MATTERS: the quote that best summarizes the article is "People no longer think about their destination being 10 km away or 10 stops on the tube. They think about it being 50 per cent of their battery away"

WHY IT MATTERS: a great reference of articles about microservice architecture.

WHY IT MATTERS: state of the art in the use of AR and VR in real life scenarios appear to remain focussed on training and repair operations. The videos in this webcast, starting at 12:30 are indicative of what's possible. First thing that strikes you is that solutions appear useful but one wonders how much work goes into making each one and also maintaining each solution. AR & VR in commercial environment remain niche solutions at this time.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI & ML will replace many jobs but this report from Gartner confirms that workers should improve their business and social skills to differentiate.

WHY IT MATTERS: as a software engineer in the 1980s, open source was considered a research project. Now it has become real business and this post details why and how you should go about building a real company with your software code open sourced. With ML/AI growing, the value lies more in the data than the code, so the open source may still have some growth ahead.

WHY IT MATTERS: an excellent article that explains the different cybercrime use cases and attacks that banks are faced with, along with estimates of costs. Next article I'm looking for is one on the solutions banks can put forward to handle those crimes: blockchain? biometric authentication? ...

WHY IT MATTERS: it looks like the new technologies that replace jobs at a rapid pace are also creating new ones at a faster pace. This may prevent dooms day scenarios where self-driving trucks make truck drivers useless for example. However, looking at the new jobs created the skills they require is very different from the one they replace (not sure truck drivers can master edge computing easily - or enjoy it). More disturbing some of the high growth jobs are low paying ones, such as elderly care workers. Change thus will be hurtful for many of the displaced.

WHY IT MATTERS: a good long read about AI, machine learning and what are current possibilities, for non techies. Part of a larger series of articles from MIT and Seattle Times paper.

WHY IT MATTERS: we do not see augmented reality in our daily lives - other than pokemon GO. I would expect AR to offer real solution in todays market of labour shortage and need to quickly rampup new employees into jobs. This solution and the video should show quite well what is possible with the technology today. I've tried it and it is quite impressive...

WHY IT MATTERS: I find it useful to characterize the companies I work with using these 4 categories. It helps me adapt the degree of change and the pace of change in my digital transformation plans.

WHY IT MATTERS: DMPs we popular a while back. Here is a good report on the use cases and scenarios where DMPs are useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: security, especially digital security and privacy, have become a central theme of digital transformation plans. Here Gartner surveys 300+ organizations to show different organizational structures for large, medium and small businesses.

My conclusion: there are too many people in charge of security, the governance is too complex and it is not clear who is RESPONSIBLE when a breach occurs...

WHY IT MATTERS: the article explains clearly why write once solutions for mobile app development often is not a good idea.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article explains the reality that plagues agile teams the are embedded in "traditional" organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: Amazon has become the evil monopoly / big brother in retail it appears these days. This long form article provides a well researched overview of the company through the lens of Jeff Bezos personality. However, I like to balance reads like this with comments from Benedict Evans of A16Z that tend to put Amazon's retail monopolistic practices in relations with those of Walmart and Costco. See here: https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1182688898285215746

WHY IT MATTERS: anything Amazon does is important because they innovate. That is they try things out until the model works. Grocery appears to be the ground where the profitable model has yet to identified. But the final goal is huge: volume. Grocery is all about weekly repetitive orders. If you solve this then you have effectively solved the delivery problem. Amazon has been trying to crack this nut for more than 10 years with launch of Amazon Fresh. And my attitude remains: if you deliver grocery at scale without loosing money then effectively all other delivery have a marginal cost. Now it looks like Amazon is thinking that in order to win the repetitive products (like peanut butter and canned soup) you need physical stores for fresh products, prepared meals and local spokes for last mile delivery...

WHY IT MATTERS: one third of the marketing budget is spent on technologies, and growing (I assume it was below 5% in 2010). Yet I fear that few IT resources know enough of marketing functions and processes (attribution, campaign management, advertising, etc.) and few marketing professionals know or care about technology requirements (system integration, master data, performance optimization, cloud computing, etc.). The need for marketing technologist is more important than ever.

WHY IT MATTERS: the power of big data is all here in this test. Enter your age, gender and 7 other facts about you and they will determine with high confidence what party you will vote for in the upcoming Canadian election. What's the trick? The data from an online survey of 300,000 Canadians. So now imagine the kind of targetting Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon can do and you'll realize why they are so valuable and dangerous. Amazing!

WHY IT MATTERS: everyone and everything is about AI it seems these days. Not wrong, AI (actually ML) will impact every industry and every application. Like SQL did in 1980s or HTTP didi in the 90s. Now it is machine learning and neural nets. This article presents the different "ways" companies internalize AI, and many ways use AI tools and techniques as building blocks to address problems that were insolvable a few years ago (because they required vision or audio processing, which for ML is actually the same things. So for my clients I say: do you have a problem you could not solve with traditional computing? Then maybe AI/ML can provide an answer.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find the number just huge and thus a cause for concern in the design of my systems, strategies and recommendations to my clients. I also include the definition of credential stuffing because 1) I did not know and 2) it shines a light into the power of having a global CDN network to perform those analyses...

2019 report: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/state-of-the-internet/soti-security-media-under-assault-report-2019.pdf

 

Credential abuse attempts were identified as unsuccessful login attempts for accounts using an email address as a username. In order to identify abuse attempts, as opposed to real users who can’t type, two different algorithms are used. The first is a simple volumetric rule that counts the number of login errors to a specific address. This differs from what a single organization might be able to detect because Akamai is correlating data across hundreds of organizations.
The second algorithm uses data from our bot detection services to identify credential abuse from known botnets and tools. A well-configured botnet can avoid volumetric detection by spreading its traffic amongst many targets, by using a large number of systems in its scan, or spreading the traffic out over time, just to mention a few countermeasures.

WHY IT MATTERS: managing millenials and genZ is like herding cats sometimes. Moreover, when they are technology engineers in a high demand marketplace, they need certain things in their work environment. I find the suggested practices very sound, especially the career path illustrated here.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find the concept that digital technologies enable discovery of the "world before us", predicting the future now being a distinct possibility with an adequate number of sensors and the right neural networks because it appears that our brain is nothing more than a big prediction machine (see book "On Intelligence" and the architecture for the neocortex).

http://fmcs.digital/blog/on-intelligence-mustread-to-understand-frontal-cortex-architecture-what-makes-us-intelligent/

WHY IT MATTERS: this new technology enables new possibilities for machine learning applications such as autonomous driving. Tesla has recently announced that every car since 2019 contains a special chip that enables autonomous driving. This wafer-scale technology takes the same concept to another level.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/all-the-data-self-driving-cars-take-in-from-cameras-looks-like-this-and-the-webviz-tool-to-visualize-it-is-now-open-source-will-this-lead-to-faster-adoption-of-self-driving-car-technology/

WHY IT MATTERS: this article and accompanying PDF presentation dive into the technical details of how it is now possible to put 1 trillion transistor on a chip designed for the sole purpose of machine learning. This is a BIG DEAL.

Slides and word document are here:

 

https://secureservercdn.net/198.12.145.239/a7b.fcb.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HC31_1.13_Cerebras.SeanLie.v02.pdf

WHY IT MATTERS: few lines of code is all you need to do things that were considered impossible 5 years ago. With this powerful tool at their finger, expect pretty every website and system to include face detection and other image processing features to be included in the coming years. But few developers will know about the limitations of the technology, especially the biais that may exist in the training data. As in this example, you realize that the "confidence" has not been used in the example, but yet it seems to be an essential information to interpret the results. There will be many many errors due to this in the coming years before the technology really is fool proof.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a BIG deal in hardware design. Being able to fabricate such a large system enables capabilities to a scale previously unheard of. Read this article for a high level overview, watch the next blog post for an in depth description.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article provides 4 ways organizations can improve customer experience. The best one is "Every employee should be able to solve customer problems".

WHY IT MATTERS: digital audit should be the primary tool in your digital transformation toolbox.

WHY IT MATTERS: Gartner recommends that marketers prioritize the following 6 tech this year. Do you?
1- Customer data platform (CDP)
2- Artificial intelligence for marketing
3- Blockchain for advertising
4- Real-time marketing
5- Multitouch attribution
6- Conversational marketing

WHY IT MATTERS: the technology stack of marketing teams has exploded in recent years with analytics, CRM, CDP, DMP, and a slew of cloud-based solutions from mailchimp to hootsuite. An audit to determine the state of the marketing stack and its strengths and weaknesses is essential.

WHY IT MATTERS: a review of surveillance cameras penetration - in relation to the concerns raised about facial recognition by benedict evans recently...

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to have a framework to organize digital transformation projects. This one from MIT CISR is a bit theoretical but hey, it comes from MIT...!

WHY IT MATTERS: mobile phones are very personal devices that you carry with you all the time. I expect that solutions like this one, always listening in the background and reacting when a specific event occurs, will become the norm in the future. Already Alexa-siri-google are listening constantly, now solutions that merge the other sensors of the device - accelerometer, etc. - are natural extensions. They can be used for good as here - or for bad as with eavesdropping solutions that Edward Snowden made popular. I am surprised that few business applications have leveraged this already, for worker security in dangerous environment (fall detection, broken glass detection, earthquake detection, etc.) can all be included into business apps where the issues of privacy can be weighed against worker security and safety, especially for workers on the road or working in areas where they are alone (woods, etc.)

WHY IT MATTERS: omnichannel is a reality and this paper presents clearly what you need to lineup to make it a reality

WHY IT MATTERS this report presents and categorizes the retail trends in 2019. Some are technology-based (AR, VR, QR codes, ...) but all are technology-driven, even those that improve product or distribution (small stores, popup stores, store as fulfillment centers, localization, ...)

WHY IT MATTERS: Amazon marketplace is seen as a possible competitor to retailers. AWS cloud infrastructure however does provide all the same tools to let retailers "roll their own"...!

ImageNet Roulette uses a neural network trained on the “people” categories from the ImageNet dataset to classify pictures of people. It’s meant to be a peek into the politics of classifying humans in machine learning systems and the data they’re trained on.
ImageNet Roulette isn't designed to handle heavy traffic so if it's not working for you please be a little patient.

WHY IT MATTERS: ImageNet has 14M pictures categorized in 32000 categories and is often used as the training dataset for image recognition neural networks. Here this website allows you to upload an image and see how the system would categorize you. It is interesting to play with different images to see what the system returns in order to get a sense of the huge amount of data that AI systems require in order to do a good job. We are far away from systems that can classify any image in any context but if you have a special niche with sufficient amount of data, it is quite impressive what can be done in a relatively short amount of time.

WHY IT MATTERS: video surveillance is going way beyond face recognition with numerous human activities that it can detect.

WHY IT MATTERS: microservice is a core architecture pattern in today's eCommerce and cloud environments. This overview provides some insights into the most well known companies that have deployed their microservice architecture at scale.

WHY IT MATTERS: the management of product, client and order data is central to delivering a unified ecommerce experience in an omni channel world. This paper sheds light into the reasons why a PIM is so important.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a big deal because the Boston Dynamics robots appear to be the advanced and versatile. The fact that they are made commercially available is significant after years of being research project. You have to be in the market for an early device with lots of limitations but, looking down the road a few years, one has to start planning for robots to start making their way into practical use cases in construction, etc. Plus the videos are just fun to watch!

WHY IT MATTERS: I love how these guys have analyzed the market and split the trends into actionable technologies such as "Do it!" and "Quick wins". The report provides a number of additional insights and data points on eCommerce sales, key players, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization requires a lot of data, tools and effort to be useful and efficient, but not creepy. This webinar drives the point across well. Moreover, hidden in the slides is this diagram that helps understand the components required to make personalization a reality: production + delivery + talent + tech + data. As usual, tech is not sufficient alone...

This is in line with my other blog post http://fmcs.digital/blog/5-ways-a-consumer-can-perceive-a-brands-personalized-message/

WHY IT MATTERS: a nice representation of the omni-channel challenges facing technologist today.

WHY IT MATTERS: machine learning is really powerful because it allows computer to tackle problems that were not possible to solve using traditional computer programming and software engineering techniques.

WHY IT MATTERS: this interview with Amazon CTO sheds light into the best practices that enable Amazon.com and the AWS infrastructure platform to exist and evolve.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization is a big thing, so is content marketing. I find useful this research that explains 5 best ways to personalize content.

WHY IT MATTERS: marketplaces are all the rage in the eCommerce world. I find this walkthrough interesting because it features digital goods (code, themes, etc.), something we don't think about enough - they are easy to ship! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the obvious killer app for facial recognition - it uses AI technology and similar hardware that iPhone uses to unlock your screen. You can now spend without any friction, not event the need to take your phone out of your pocket. Of course this raises obvious privacy and security concerns - but in China the concept of privacy appears different than in the West. But the most important factor is that Asia is deploying this *at scale* first, waaaaaaayyyy before the USA where you still have to sign paper slips for credit card transactions... Who is leading the techno war these days?

WHY IT MATTERS: a short article that explains clearly how you can leverage automation is companies today.

WHY IT MATTERS: this report on the use of software as a service in companies - think products like salesforce.com, office365, mailchimp and others. The data is clear: SaaS solutions are popular and no one seems to be in charge. This will have serious implications in terms of accountability, security, privacy, regulation compliance, economies of scale, etc. Who will manage that?

WHY IT MATTERS: software as a service or cloud based tools are often easy to connect. This example from Hubspot marketplace, with over 300 connections, is proof.

We worry about face recognition just as we worried about databases - we worry what happens if they contain bad data and we worry what bad people might do with them.

My favourite example of what can go wrong here comes from a project for recognising cancer in photos of skin. The obvious problem is that you might not have an appropriate distribution of samples of skin in different tones. But another problem that can arise is that dermatologists tend to put rulers in the photo of cancer, for scale - so if all the examples of ‘cancer’ have a ruler and all the examples of ‘not-cancer’ do not, that might be a lot more statistically prominent than those small blemishes. You inadvertently built a ruler-recogniser instead of a cancer-recogniser.

The structural thing to understand here is that the system has no understanding of what it’s looking at - it has no concept of skin or cancer or colour or gender or people or even images. It doesn’t know what these things are any more than a washing machine knows what clothes are. It’s just doing a statistical comparison of data sets. So, again - what is your data set? How is it selected? What might be in it that you don’t notice - even if you’re looking? How might different human groups be represented in misleading ways? And what might be in your data that has nothing to do with people and no predictive value, yet affects the result? Are all your ‘healthy’ photos taken under incandescent light and all your ‘unhealthy’ pictures taken under LED light? You might not be able to tell, but the computer will be using that as a signal.

WHY IT MATTERS: face recognition is a very powerful solution that machine learning has made possible. This very good post describes what happens if we do not carefully determine what is allowable and what is not with this new technology. 

WHY IT MATTERS: AI projects require a specific process pipeline to ensure that the required data is available, in sufficient quality and quantity to leverage the AI tools. this webinar provides a good executive level overview of this process.

By 2020, Gartner has predicted that more than 60% of online sellers will adopt a marketplace or include third-party sellers in their eCommerce ecosystems. Marketplaces are one of the platform model types that are transforming every industry.

The platform model brings buyers and sellers together, helping businesses deliver a better customer experience while gathering customer insights. Data from McKinsey shows that companies that platform grow, and companies that don't platform don't grow.

But where do you begin? Our guide will teach you how to define your platform strategy and get started.

Read the eBook to learn:

- The different types of platform models, and which are best suited for your business
- Platform Pioneer stories, including how Best Buy became the most trafficked retailer in Canada
- The first steps you should take to kickstart your business’ platform revolution

WHY IT MATTERS: this white paper explains the key elements to look for in a marketplace solution, whether you need to join one or create one of your own.

WHY IT MATTERS: mapping processes is useful to craft a digital transformation that provides a seamless customer experience. Process mining tools help uncover issues by drawing insights from actual data extracted from call center logs, ERP transactions, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: in this age where "experiences" seem to matter more than anything else, this article provides a framework to help software developers and their managers with tools to prepare their strategy and deliver.

WHY IT MATTERS: a key component of digital transformation is moving to cloud infrastructure and services like AWS, Azure, Google, Salesforce, etc. The growth is the reflection that digital transformation is a reality for many organizations. Yet most organizations still have most of their IT servers and infrastructure in house, leaving a lot of room for growth in the future.

WHY IT MATTERS: an article full of eye opening data on hacking and security (like only 750$ to hack someone's password) and links to protect your Google accounts (like adding recovery phone number).

In the connected era, an increasing number of IoT solutions will make our homes, public areas and workplaces, smarter. Building managers will have access to real-time, cloud-based analytics, reporting and services, allowing for informed decision making. With the increasing market demands for cost-saving occupancy comfort solutions, connected technologies are well-positioned to meet the needs of the automated building industry. 
From fire detection to temperature control and energy management, these applications are a part of a growing market. In fact, Allied Market Research 
forecasts that by 2024, the global intelligent building market will be valued at over $42 billion. Additionally, a recent Research and Markets report estimates that over 483 million IoT-based building solutions will be installed by 2022. To support this growth, IoT-based building solutions require reliable technology that will enable full use of its connective capabilities in a complex environment. 

WHY IT MATTERS: new technologies and protocols are needed to make Inter of Things a reality. Here is a good overview of the LPWAN and LoRaWAN usage in smart building.

WHY IT MATTERS: delivery is the last issues that plagues eCommerce because of high costs and delays. Delivery accounts for 14-15% of Amazon revenues. Reducing it will have a huge impact on profit and customer satisfaction.

I argued in the past that grocery retail is for Amazon the way to address delivery costs. Grocery effectively makes delivery a commodity. Having trucks roam the streets delivering groceries (repetitive, predictable, ...), the other order items on the truck can be delivered at marginal cost. 

WHY IT MATTERS: like other units in the organization, the impact of AI in IT is beginning to take shape.

WHY IT MATTERS: the article is a great rundown of the many data and analytics companies and solutions that work to draw your digital self portrait.

You may want to read my "Meet your digital twin" article which dives more into this topic: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/

WHY IT MATTERS: omnichannel is essential as this article shows - 33% of sales are omnichannel and the number is growing. But don't get fooled, omnichannel is difficult to implement because it requires systems to talk to one another, something they weren't often designed to do!

WHY IT MATTERS: omnichannel has been the buzzword for years and this report shows that organizations that embrace it see positive returns.

WHY IT MATTERS: sign of the times, maturity models are starting to emerge to help marketing organizations plan their roadmap to improved marketing using digital.

The number of marketing technologies available to businesses has soared in the last five years – from about 150 in 2011 to over 3,800 in 2016, according to ChiefMarTech.com. And a study by eConsultancy and Tealium found that businesses use on average more than 20 marketing technology vendors to deliver their campaigns and customer experiences. This rapid expansion of the MarTech space has created significant challenges for marketing, technology, and management teams alike making it difficult to build cohesive, end-to-end customer experiences because of gaps between marketing technologies, the data they leverage, and how they are implemented. This paper provides an overview of the four core problems businesses are facing with data due to the proliferation of marketing technology, and how adopting a Universal Data Hub (UDH) solves these problems. 

WHY IT MATTERS: this article highlights the importance of technology and data science in marketing today.

WHY IT MATTERS: content marketing is a very powerful way to make omnichannel a reality. As this article highlights, it requires solid technologies to ensure that a single piece of content can be syndicated across multiple channel easily.

WHY IT MATTERS: this report from Gartner surprisingly is very useful as it provides a framework and target reference architecture for machine learning and AI. Very well done and useful. The link is for 2018 update but the original 2017 report is available for free here: https://www.gartner.com/binaries/content/assets/events/keywords/catalyst/catus8/preparing_and_architecting_for_machine_learning.pdf

WNHY IT MATTERS: everyone's wondering how to use AI within their organization. This paper suggests a 4-step approach to make this a reality, focussing on processes rather than technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: in the famous Gartner hype cycle, every new technology goes through the same cycles, from initial hype to desillusionment to mainstream adoption. It is during this stage, when everyone is tired of hearing about the new gadget or solution that fail to deliver promised results that the technology matures and is ready to be rolled out. Based on this and similar articles, it seems that we are here for digital transformation. Hurray!

WHY IT MATTERS: this report from Gartner provide a framework to structure AI experimentation within the organizations. What it says, really, is that for most companies, AI remains an exploratory process to gain insights into what works and what doesn't as most of the data and the technology is often not ready for prime-time.

By now you understand that AI is mainstream. We carry it around in our phones, it’s installed in our automobiles and household appliances. But how should you be thinking about using AI in your business? Start by considering the data managed by your company. What can your data teach you about your business? What can you automate or streamline using your data? If there are repetitive processes in your business, AI can be used to automate those processes.
For example, if you have large customer data sets, it is likely you can use machine learning to let the data tell you more about those customers, give you intelligent insights that will help you to create a more customer focused offering. Examples: Retail banks use AI to offer appropriate banking products tailored for individual customers. Insurance companies use AI to verify identity, assess risk profiles and recommend coverage. Companies are using ML to sort though massive resumes to find the best matches for new employees.

WHY IT MATTERS: this report provides very useful insights into steps to build an AI strategy for organizations. It starts, obviously with data, and provides examples of tools and technologies to help get you started.

Companies transforming to become customer-obsessed are using customer journey analytics to help them become customer-led, insights-driven, fast, and connected, and to ultimately be more effective in acquiring, serving and retaining customers.  

This report from leading global research and advisory firm, Forrester, identifies the 12 most significant customer journey analytics platform providers today, and reveals how each measures up based on 26 different evaluation criteria, to help you make the right choice for your organization. You'll get a complete overview of the current customer journey analytics market, including;

  • The two primary journey analytics provider categories, visioning and orchestration, and four core capabilities: (1) data fusion, (2) journey design & planning, (3) journey testing & optimization, and (4) journey automation & orchestration
  • The 2018 Forrester Wave Journey Visioning Platform rankings and scorecard
  • A breakdown of each journey analytics provider’s offering, strengths, specialties, and customer base
  • Key criteria that helps leaders stand out from the pack

WHY IT MATTERS: customer journeys often are nothing more than nice illustrations of customer touchpoints and interactions. While true, this report shows that tools emerge to help understand the journey beyond simple mapping to include elements required to orchestrate and consolidate the data that is generated as part of the journey in different systems.

WHY IT MATTERS: now is a good time to study anything related to digital because companies are facing skills shortage.

WHY IT MATTERS: the title is a bit misleading but the presentation gives a fairly decent summary of the components and processes in a modern data pipeline designed for machine learning.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation now is really maturing with the availability of online classes. Also see

MIT:

http://www2.emeritus.org/programs/digital-transformation-fb

 

WHY IT MATTERS: there are things you can do at every level of maturity to improve personalization.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization is often difficult to implement but when done right it delivers real value for retailers and their clients.

Technology is changing the face of the energy industry. Communities are using blockchain to sell solar power to each other. Big oil and gas companies are using artificial intelligence to map out potential extraction points. Disaster zones and emerging markets are moving directly to microgrids and away from centralized grid models.

In this briefing, we cover:

  • Major corporates that are backing blockchain technology to improve energy transactions, like Siemens, which has partnered with LO3 to launch the Brooklyn Microgrid
  • The implications of startups like Bidgley that are helping utilities disaggregate the massive deluge of data that has come from a new wave of connected devices
  • The role that artificial intelligence can play in the industry, from making grids smarter and more responsive to improving storage efficiency
  • What a sturdy cybersecurity offering might look like in the energy industry

WHY IT MATTERS: the impact of blockchain goes way beyond bitcoin fiasco and has potential to help in energy trading for example. Of cours AI will impact energy as all other sectors. more in this research briefing.

WHY IT MATTERS: a compilation of must read articles from MIT. Different topic every week. Part of my weekend routine... What is yours?

WHY IT MATTERS: amazing review of the changes coming to personal transportation in the coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS: if retail transformation implies creating in-store experience, then it makes sense for wellness to play a major role.

WHY IT MATTERS: amazing to spend 2 hours prying into the brains of amazing individuals about technology, AI, and the future of self driving cars.

WHY IT MATTERS: so true, simple is better!

Now is the time to empower effective change in your business. Eighty-eight percent of shoppers say they rely on digital product content to decide where to buy. The technology systems of the past cannot keep pace with the detailed, personalized, and contextualized experience consumers demand. The role of information technology is undergoing significant shifts.
This ebook outlines a new approach to product information management: combing true agility and necessary data governance. Product data is a key component of the consumer experience. Static data will leave your business behind in the emerging market of tomorrow. To adapt to digital commerce, businesses must re-evaluate their current ecosystems and update their approach to product information management.
- How to balance the increasing need for both data quality and data agility
- The technology required to drive internal efficiency and grow sales and market share on the digital shelf
- A step-by-step process to empower business users without sacrificing data governance
- A set of questions to help assess whether your organization’s needs will be met by any new system

WHY IT MATTERS: 3 key data domains should be top of any company's EA priority list: client, orders and products. This ebook sheds some light onto key processes and technologies required to manage product data centrally.

Google’s revenue growth — with advertising at its core — is only as strong as the world’s access to its products. Today, it’s estimated that less than 55% of the world has access to reliable, high-speed internet. For this reason, Google has become increasingly focused on improving connectivity. The company is partnering and competing as it works toward global, ubiquitous internet access.
In this research briefing, we analyze 8 initiatives by Google and the broader Alphabet organization — each helping to extend the company’s reach. We dig into patents, earnings calls, private market data, and more to understand Google’s strategy across these areas, including:
Fiber Optics & Fixed Wireless Internet Services
Cellular Service & Connectivity
Live, Online Television
Cloud Computing
Public WiFi

WHY IT M'ATTERS: Google expands its reach into many data-driven industries, telecom being one of them.

Agile Practice Guide provides tools, situational guidelines, and an understanding of the various Agile approaches available to enable better results. It is especially useful for project managers accustomed to a more traditional environment to adapt to a more Agile approach. The Agile Practice Guide contains the following sections:
- An Introduction to Agile describes the Agile Manifesto mindset, values, and principles. It also covers the concepts of definable and high-uncertainty work, and the correlation between the Lean, Kanban, and Agile approaches.
- Life Cycle Selection introduces the various life cycles discussed in the practice guide and covers suitability filters, tailoring guidelines, and common combinations of approaches.
- Implementing Agile: Creating an Agile Environment talks about critical factors to consider when creating an Agile environment such as servant leadership and team composition.
- Implementing Agile: Delivering in an Agile Environment discusses how to organize a team and common practices the team can use for delivering value on a regular basis. It provides examples of empirical measurements for the team and for reporting status.
- Organizational Considerations for Project Agility explores organizational factors that impact the use of Agile practices, such as culture, readiness, business practices, and the role of a project management office (PMO).

WHY IT MATTERS: must read for anyone interested in knowing what Agile is all about and how to implement it in their team or company.

WHY IT MATTERS: because we spend most of our time in spreadsheets these days, these add-ons help make us more productive...

WHY IT MATTERS: impressive to see how ar and wide his impact has been.

WHY IT MATTERS: with everything connected to the Internet, possibilities are endless, for good and bad...

WHY IT MATTERS: a simple description of the different architectures of WCMS solutions to help put some structure in this field that is often confusing because everyone wants to be everything for everyone...

WHY IT MATTERS: this analysis is spot on. There are 2 main platforms for large enterprises, Adobe and Acquia. I find the rise of episerver in the Microsoft area, from an ecommerce company into a full web platform very much worth taking notice.

One of the many challenges with building or refreshing a website is the selection of a Content Management System (CMS). Despite our best efforts the CMS can often be a source of difficulty in a project, but there are alternatives. Read about the approach we took on www.thoughtworks.com to developing functionality to support content management in an incremental fashion.

CONCLUSION

This article has detailed an incremental approach to developing a content managed web application, in contrast to the adoption of a CMS at the outset. While there are the costs associated with developing functionality which you could get “off the shelf,” these are offset by some of the advantage of this approach – flexibility, simplicity, control, obviating the need to learn a bespoke framework and above all being able to move in small steps from a simple static web site to a managed one.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is what happens when you ask developers to build a content management solution. Very good insights into the process though.

WHY IT MATTERS: platforms are all the rage in digital transformations. Companies and executives often bet that their preferred platform will guide and integrate the right tools. If you look at the mess that IBM and Oracle have made with their platforms over the years, one can only hope that Adobe, salesforce and SAP will not do the same. episerver, sitecore save the day for Microsoft which has failed to deliver in recent years.

Gartner defines web content management (WCM) as the process of creating, managing and delivering content over one or more digital channels through the use of specific management solutions based on a core repository. These solutions may be procured as commercial products, open-source tools, cloud services or hosted services.
The functionality of WCM solutions goes beyond simply publishing webpages. It also includes:
  • Content creation functions, such as templating, workflow and change management
  • Repositories that organize and provide metadata about content
  • Library services, such as check-in/check-out, version control and security
  • Website management features, such as layout, menus and navigation
  • Content deployment functions
  • Personalization and analytics capabilities
  • The ability to integrate well, via APIs, with adjacent technologies such as digital commerce platforms, social media platforms, marketing automation platforms and broader digital experience platforms (DXPs)
  • Hybrid (traditional and headless) and pure headless capabilities for API-driven omnichannel content delivery

WHY IT MATTERS: quadrants are very interesting because they show progress year over year and provide insights into the market leaders and key trends. So take the included solutions and their relative position with a grain of salt, but read the content to understand how complex the world of web content management has become. Choice is difficult, at best.

WHY IT MATTERS: choosing a web content management solution is a pain in the neck. This approach does away with that altogether and builds its own versions. Very useful to understand the limitations of commercial CMS solutions.

 

Also read: edit-publish separation by Martin Fowler

https://martinfowler.com/bliki/EditingPublishingSeparation.html

 

WHY IT MATTERS: the benefits of back-office systems such as product information management (PIM) or customer data platforms (CDP) are hard to grasp. That is why studies like this are so important - beyond the obvious hype around ROI and payback - they highlight costs and areas where you may be able to save. Moreover, solutions like Salsify that are SaaS cloud based very often struggle to gain traction as teams in IT or operations are already in place and not about to get fired. Large ERPs like SAP or Oracle will claim that their modules are better and more integrated. Unfortunately, front-office teams in Marketing and eCommerce face challenges and huge savings when it comes to improved data quality and faster time to market which often are hard to measured. This study may help identify some of these areas of saving...

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to look beyond digital transformation into practical applications of the digital technologies. In particular, #2,6,7 in the list. Here an extract from the #7 highlights an application of blockchain which we've been tracking for a while as a disruptive digital technology that has received a lot of bad press with the bitcoin debacle but that has real future...

"Together, a pair of technologies could reduce both food poisoning and food waste. The first, an innovative application of blockchain technology (better known for managing virtual currency) is beginning to solve the traceability problem. Enhanced food packaging, meanwhile, is providing new ways to determine whether foods have been stored at proper temperatures and whether they might have begun to spoil."

WHY IT MATTERS: I am part of the dotcom startups of late 1990s in Montreal. I see a much more vibrant ecosystem to support startups and find this article from the World Economic Forum spot on. Most notably, the list of 12 cities only has one in North America, all others are Asia Pac (+Melbourne!). So we are in a good place here in Montreal, otherwise I advise my kids to GO WEST (beyond California...)!

 

For data on the 1300 startups in Montreal: 

http://www.montrealintechnology.com/a-portrait-of-montreals-startup-ecosystem-by-the-numbers/

 

https://startupgenome.com/blog/montreal-startup-ecosystem

WHY IT MATTERS: this short video very nicely describes what event brokers are by starting from scratch and providing great examples.

WHY IT MATTERS: most of the population of Quebec is freaking out about the breach of 3M personal records recently. It is bad and should not go unnoticed but this study by MIT should put the breach in perspective: basically you cannot expect anonymity in this digital world. C'est la vie...

WHY IT MATTERS: this article relates to a recent post on EA tools. The conclusion is clear: EA should focus on delivering what business needs instead of pushing for technology infrastructure. Instead of having milestones related to building single sign on or identity management solutions, align roadmap to the delivery of employee self-service portal for HR or supplier B2B eCommerce for supply chain BU. Basically align the EA roadmap on the business priorities.

WHY IT MATTERS: enterprise architecture remains a great idea with awful delivery IMHO.

Great idea because most organizations do not have a complete high level view of their organizations from a business, data, application and technology in order to drive governance and security and manage project portfolio priorities.

Awful delivery because most EA groups tends to isolate themselves in ivory towers, with hard to define value and limited deliverables.

EA tools, in the same vein, have traditionally been bloated versions of difficult to maintain and often stale information, the main issue not being the software but the content and its maintenance...

WHY IT MATTERS: in recent discussions I needed to place the current AI hype in context of the computer revolution. The concept dates back to the early computer days in the 1950s but the current hype is only 10 years old, tracing back to the time when CPU power and data became available in large volume at cheap prices, circa 2008.

WHY IT MATTERS: dating back to 2017, 2 years ago, this study would benefit from an update of the penetration numbers. However, some of the conclusions remain valid. Specifically, not all investments in digital are beneficial and it is essential to measure returns and invest across the whole process map as per this quote from the article:

"As executives assess the scope of their investments, they should ask themselves if they have taken only a few steps forward in a given dimension—by digitizing their existing customer touchpoints, say. Others might find that they have acted more significantly by digitizing nearly all of their business processes and introducing new ones, where needed, to connect suppliers and users."

WHY IT MATTERS: every computer problem can be thought of as image analysis. Face recognition and cancer detection in radiography of course, but also product search for example. This is why machine learning is such a big deal: it makes image recognition possible in a wide range of scenarios quickly with great accuracy. After all it makes sense as humans and animals rely on vision so much and that other senses can be converted into images (think sound waves, touch nerve patterns, smell, etc.

 

Image via www.vpnsrus.com

WHY IT MATTERS: I am amazed that we need to write articles like this given all the failures in recent years. In a nutshell, there is no technology silver bullet. No matter what the salesman r marketer says, digital transformation requires you to change processes and, very often, people too. That's how profound it is. And though you can easily outsource or delegate implementation of technology or process, you cannot delegate the change management. Suck it up and do it!

WHY IT MATTERS: this is by far the best review of Amazon GO stores to date. More important is the description of the R&D process, with its hits and misses, failure to deliver, etc. Underlying it all it is a testament to the relative efficiency of conventional supermarkets and convenience stores: large space, racks of products, a checkout counter and as little as 1 person paid minimum wage to pack the shelves and take payment. Technology has a long way to go to be that cost effective. Then again, it is experiments like these that push the limits of what's possible and make the technology readily available to reach the tipping point at which time everything falls into place...

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation enables individuals to behave like organizations. Personal branding thus has become essential for consultants and subject matter experts. 

I also recommend the very good book "Visual Expert" in your quest to personal branding.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0990445909

WHY IT MATTERS: images are essential to making the web and ecommerce powerful. Here is a list of image manipulation code snippets that show just how easy it is to perform changes and adjustments.

WHY IT MATTERS: images are essential to making the web and ecommerce powerful. Here is a list of image manipulation reference that show just how easy it is to perform changes and adjustments.

WHY IT MATTERS: recent security breaches highlight the importance of good passwords. This checklist can help you stay up to date and simply the task...

WHY IT MATTERS: I launched IGA cybermarket August 1996 - 23 years ago soon - so this subject still fascinates me given that penetration remains very low. Reasons are clear: food is such an important item in your budget that price matter and few are ready to pay for the extra cost of online picking. But solutions are around the corner...

WHY IT MATTERS: eCommerce now accounts for 1 in 4 total sales so everyone should use this as a benchmark ie. if you are not selling 25% online then you may be behind the ball (depends on your industry but a good benchmark). Also, if your site is not mobile focussed, you have to take steps to change that.

WHY IT MATTERS: recent studies about the future of work are full of data projections but this article puts it all in context with a hypothetical scenario of a director in a private equity firm in year 2030 that learns that her organization is shifting to a new model where employees all become contractors...

As the retail industry continues to be disrupted by emerging technologies and shifting consumer behavior, how do you keep up? One of the first steps is to keep up to date with the latest innovations and trends that will transform how you start, market, manage, and grow your business in 2019 and beyond.

We’ve put together a list of our favorite retail blogs on the internet and outlined the subjects each of them covers. We’ve selected blogs based on their industry expertise, the volume of content they publish, and how actionable their content is.

The 15 best retail blogs that every retailer needs to add to their reading list. Convince and convert. Retail Dive. Insider Trends. Retail Wire. Harvard Business Review. TechCrunch. Lightspeed Blog. The Retail Doctor. The National Retail Federation. Medallion Retail. Forrester Retail. Hubspot Blog. Retail Design Blog. Neil Patel Blog.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a great reference to make part of your weekly reading list.

WHY IT MATTERS: for digital transformation, this post does not matter because digital transformation will continue for years to come because the fundamentals are good: new tech that solves a real problem, cost reduction, better customer experience, more flexibility, more features, etc. Fundamentals are also great for Machine Learning (AI) and blockchain because they truly represent milestones in the evolution of digital technologies, like HTTP did during the dotcom era.

Many companies will burst as the current bubble bursts (digital bubble? AI bubble? Blockchain bubble?), as did pet.com and Webvan in 2001. Yet, the same way Amazon & Google survived the downturn to emerge bigger and better, companies with crazy valuations today but with proper business models will survive this one. So go back to looking at the leaders behind those companies and determine if they can lead their ship past the disturbances that are bound to come with a bubble burst...

WHY IT MATTERS: this very technical paper provides some easy to understand visualizations of the way a neural network analyzes images...

WHY IT MATTERS: always in search of the killer app, looks like AR is actually something that you embed into something else (here to sample lipstick in Amazon retail, there to correct the eyes in Apple facetime) rather than something you do on its own (think pokemon GO). Hmmm... 

WHY IT MATTERS: AI and big data applied to home improvement and renovation.

WHY IT MATTERS: design has been made popular in recent years and design thinking approach has made the process easier to apply. This article from McKinsey provides insights into 4 core elements that organization should put forward when focussing on design.

WHY IT MATTERS: a technical oriented detailed description of the algorithm that LinkedIn uses to select which jobs to place in your feed.

WHY IT MATTERS: reminds me of the joke: "Only one man and one dog are needed in a warehouse of the future. The dog is there to keep humans away from the place. The human is there to feed the dog." 

WHY IT MATTERS: the cloud has profoundly changed the way we do things. Here are very good article on the cloud-native architecture, what it should be. Take note an apply to your own architecture whenever possible.

WHY IT MATTERS: often people wonder why AI is such a big thing. The reason is simple: it will impact *Everything*. This story is about using data and AI to drastically change the home renovation business. Can't get more low tech than that...!

In the near future, all media buying will be automated. Being good at buying media will no longer be a competitive advantage.

Based on my research and work I’m doing with some of the top CMOs in the world, here are my bold predictions for what advertising will look like in Canada by 2025:

WHY IT MATTERS: if you went into marketing because you did not like math or science, well I think the future will be very very painful... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: the report is not available for free but the 42 slide summary is a great overview of key trends that are presented with observations and outcome.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization of products and services requires 3 key ingredients that are data-driven: customer database, identity management and data management.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization of products and services is a data-driven process.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization of products and services - for example to give bigger coupons to most valuable customers or pricing insurance premiums more accurately based on risk and behavior - should not be seen as a marketing trend or an expense but rather as a revenue generator.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation often is sparked by technology improvements - Big Data, advanced analytics, AI. Marketing has been affected profoundly by what is called marTech but this article highlights that successful transformations require an attention to people, skills, roles, work organization, and change management. Based on my experience I believe this applies to many other departments in the organization when faced with similar technological revolution.

WHY IT MATTERS: I recommend a good read of this year's awards for marketing technology stack. I must however warn that the illustration - while beautiful - fail to carry as much information as they should to pick best from worst. How are they connected? What is the cost to acquire and maintain? How is security and privacy ensured? etc. etc. I would urge a more in depth review of the winning solutions to help grasp what it really means to be marTech best in class in 2019.

WHY IT MATTERS: interesting to see all the data self-driving cars process. More interesting though is that tools and technologies required to make self-driving cars, trucks and other vehicles is becoming more readily available which should spark an even faster adoption cycle.

WHY IT MATTERS: this report provides hundreds of profiles by industry and regions to analyze the impact pf digital technologies on different areas. Great reference. Must read.

WHY IT MATTERS: future of work will see many existing jobs disappear and new jobs appear. Workers will require resilience and capability to adapt and embrace the new roles, which will require social and technical skills. Get ready!

WHY IT MATTERS: this in depth report provides detailed analysis of the potential impact of digital technologies, including AI, on the job market. In a nutshell, pretty much everybody will be impacted and the best way to stay relevant is to combine technology with human social skills.

WHY IT MATTERS: marketing technology landscape keeps growing with new products and solutions organized in 50 categories. A must read for anyone interested in technology an or marketing. A note of care however: this illustration fails to highlight the major platforms and how, when leveraged, simplifies the technology landscape tremendously. This may require a platform-specific landscape in the future to help those organizations with such platforms as Adobe, salesforce, Dynamics and others to get a clearer picture of their real options...

This report presents LibraBFT, a robust and efficient state machine replication system designed for the Libra Blockchain. LibraBFT is based on HotStuff, a recent protocol that leverages several decades of scientific advances in Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) and achieves the strong scalability and security properties required by internet settings. LibraBFT further refines the HotStuff protocol to introduce explicit liveness mechanisms and provides a concrete latency analysis. To drive the integration with the Libra Blockchain, this document provides specifications extracted from a fully-functional simulator. These specifications include state replication interfaces and a communication framework for data transfer and state synchronization among participants. Finally, this report provides a formal safety proof that induces criteria to detect misbehavior of BFT nodes, coupled with a simple reward and punishment mechanism.

WHY IT MATTERS: Facebook announcement of its cryptocurrency called LIBRA will generate many comments but I expect few will take time to look at the technology behind the solution. Here, the blockchain state machine is explained in a detailed whitepaper.

IMHO this is the most interesting piece as it lays out the required components to implement a blockchain solution. This will require knowledge and expertise that today few have. If LIBRA is a commercial success then expect others to leverage the same technology in their solutions. Thus, worth reading.

We present Move, a safe and flexible programming language for the Libra Blockchain. Move is an executable bytecode language used to implement custom transactions and smart contracts. The key feature of Move is the ability to define custom resource types with semantics inspired by linear logic: a resource can never be copied or implicitly discarded, only moved between program storage locations. These safety guarantees are enforced statically by Move’s type system. Despite these special protections, resources are ordinary program values — they can be stored in data structures, passed as arguments to procedures, and so on. First-class resources are a very general concept that programmers can use not only to implement safe digital assets but also to write correct business logic for wrapping assets and enforcing access control policies. The safety and expressivity of Move have enabled us to implement significant parts of the Libra protocol in Move, including Libra coin, transaction processing, and validator management.

WHY IT MATTERS: Facebook announcement of its cryptocurrency called LIBRA will generate many comments but I expect few will take time to look at the technology behind the solution. Here, the LIBRA new programming language MOVE is explained in a detailed whitepaper.

IMHO this is the most interesting piece as it lays out the required components to implement a blockchain solution. This will require knowledge and expertise that today few have. If LIBRA is a commercial success then expect others to leverage the same technology in their solutions. Thus, worth reading.

WHY IT MATTERS: Facebook announcement of its cryptocurrency called LIBRA will generate many comments but I expect few will take time to look at the technology behind the solution. Here, the LIBRA blockchain is explained in a detailed whitepaper.

IMHO this is the most interesting piece as it lays out the required components to implement a blockchain solution. This will require knowledge and expertise that today few have. If LIBRA is a commercial success then expect others to leverage the same technology in their solutions. Thus, worth reading.

WHY IT MATTERS: Facebook announcement of its cryptocurrency called LIBRA will generate many comments but I expect few will take time to look at the technology behind the solution. Here, the life of a LIBRA trransaction is explained.

IMHO this is the most interesting piece as it lays out the required components to implement a blockchain solution. This will require knowledge and expertise that today few have. If LIBRA is a commercial success then expect others to leverage the same technology in their solutions. Thus, worth reading.

WHY IT MATTERS: Facebook announcement of its cryptocurrency called LIBRA will generate many comments but I expect few will take time to look at the technology behind the solution. Here, the LIBRA protocol is explained.

IMHO this is the most interesting piece as it lays out the required components to implement a blockchain solution. This will require knowledge and expertise that today few have. If LIBRA is a commercial success then expect others to leverage the same technology in their solutions. Thus, worth reading.

WHY IT MATTERS: we have come to depend on open source software - OSS - to improve our development speed and features. It is very easy to include well known frameworks, analytics or even rely on OSS databases as the core of our apps. We should not underestimate the dependencies this creates within our own solutions, as the weakest link in the whole solution may be that of the OSS code you leverage. Be careful and do not trust blindly these solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: again and again it is clear that home delivery is the last hurdle of eCommerce. It is expensive and cumbersome. Adding an extra day by FedEx and others will not solve the core issue: low-cost fast and efficient home delivery. I keep thinking that milkman pre-defined routes with some form of robotization will be the solution. No one seems to be addressing this complex problem...

WHY IT MATTERS: the concepts brought forward in this article are very important, and I would say must read for software and enterprise architects so that they get off their high horse and do things a bit more concrete...

WHY IT MATTERS: the final frontier in eCommerce is delivery to the home - the "last mile". Retailers have been great at solving technical issues around selling online and fulfilling orders cost effectively in large warehouses. Delivery remains plagued with slow and costly solutions that have not much changed since the FarWest postal delivery by horse-drawn carriage (think about it). This must change and we must apply automation, robotics and other tech to improve that and make it so that any retailer can send a parcel in few hours for as little as the cost of gas/electricity to get the parcel to the customer...

WHY IT MATTER: if you manage a marketing team, the proliferation of channels and touchpoints that content marketing brings forwards means you now need tools to manage and coordinate your teams. Very much in line with my motto that digital transformation is equal parts technology, processes, and people...

WHY IT MATTERS: marketing teams are most impacted by digital transformation. This article from McKinsey states what I see on a regular basis within marketing teams I support. They must change

- WHAT they do (more data, more science, more tech),

- WHY they do it (branding is nice but growth and top line contributions are new targets), and

- HOW they do it (leverage agile, work in small squads aligned to tribes)

WHY IT MATTERS: it is the annual reference for us digital geeks. 330 pages full of data and trends about everything Internet - and digital - related!

WHY IT MATTER: facial recognition used to be a very difficult thing to do but AI and machine learning specifically has blown this out the water opening the way for a slew of real world useful applications. 

WHY IT MATTERS: a very good article that highlights the CIOs goals to stay relevant with regards to innovation but that there is a lot of work ahead of them. Getting help from the outside is a must it seems because of many limitations within their own teams.

I wrote about ways that CIOs can stay relevant here: 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/top-technologies-for-digital-disruption-hints-that-cios-should-act-more-like-venturecapitalists/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/the-first-100-days-of-a-new-cio-nine-steps-for-wiring-in-success-via-mckinsey/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/understanding-the-strategic-value-of-it-in-ma-via-mckinsey-cio-ma-digitaltransformation/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/who-owns-digital-transformation-according-to-a-new-survey-its-not-the-cio/

WHY IT MATTERS: with voice enable devices making their way into the professional settings like doctors offices or lawyers office, the impact of devices that record everything that is being said in very private settings should concern us all.

WHY IT MATTERS: with digital transformation comes new tools and techniques that we need to learn to keep our privacy. These are 5 of them.

WHY IT MATTERS: for geeks that want to understand which trackers exists and how they appear on mobile apps and websites. Can also be used to add them to your apps of sites, unfortunately...

WHY IT MATTERS: I wrote about this many years back and it is worth an update given this very interesting article from WP. The growth of mobile tracking, yes even on iPhone, should be cause for concern. They also link to a solution, disconnect.me which I also covered in the past when it was launched as the collusion chrome plugin (in 2013!!!!). Moreover the very good github list of trackers is quite mindblowing. Yes it has been 6 years and the state of privacy has worsened in serious ways. Follow the links in the article for details but here are the 2 I consider most useful:

https://disconnect.me/

https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-protection

WHY IT MATTERS: Amazon is scaring a lot of retailers. This report makes the case that other industries should also be scared of Amazon. Digital disruption is the name of the game

WHY IT MATTERS: a clever overview of the digital media world that highlights the importance of digital technology and in particular of unified customer data to break down silos. Very true indeed!

WHY IT MATTERS: you have to sell where people are (location location location). So everyone sells on Amazon. But at the same time, Amazon has access to analytics data about best selling products where they create private labels of best selling products - effectively using the marketplace as a "revenue generating" market research tool. Unsustainable for retailers that compete with Amazon. Alternatives are being discussed in every meeting that I have, from home grown private solutions to local or regional options. But the crocks of the matter remains: people are hanging out on Amazon so if you build a marketplace your solution must absolutely allocate sufficient funding to draw people in. So plan to allocate at least as much in marketing as you do in technology - then repeat every year for the foreseable future.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a great article about a very serious study. I believe that digital transformationalists like me are a bit like foxes in this article: we consider people + process + technology in our transformation plans and often have to adjust over time as we learn more about the situation (very much in line with the Agile methodology). We consider not only technology but also how people will be affected and assign money and effort to support them. Often our solutions are less than perfect but adequate for the current needs and maturity of our client. 

WHY IT MATTERS: many of my clients will select a digital platform to support their transformation - Adobe, Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP, etc. Platforms sound than a collection of best of breed solutions that all evolve in different directions with much different timing - sometimes ending in an acquisition by a platform such as magento by Adobe or Hybris by SAP. They hope that by doing so they will de-risk their projects and surf on the coat tails of an integrated solution with a wise and aggressive roadmap. Unfortunately, betting on the wrong horse means years of stagnation and pain - ask any executive that has selected IBM websphere commerce platform for their horror stories. This article provide 4 key elements to look for in your platform selection to help determine if they have a long term future.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation project always sound great until you start planning the work to be done. Then you realize how old computer systems are, how bad databases and their information really is, and often how much work there is to digitize the data that you need. Sometimes you are lucky, the data is already in digital format, in a file or an excel spreadsheet somewhere (most probably not one but many). But often you have to create it yourself. Armies of content creators work for months to create the texts in your typical corporate website. Months are spend shooting pictures (and now videos) or products in elaborate digital studios (one of the primary cost of eCommerce setup and operations). Then, often, you have to create the pipeline to carry this new digital content from the source (say the photo studio) to the website, which requires custom software and scripts.

*THIS* is where digital projects often ail or bust their deadlines and budgets. Now, consider yourself warned for your next project! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: marketing roles and responsibilities are being disrupted by digital technologies. This paper provides some great insights on how to organize and structure your marketing team from small startup to large organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: workers skills must evolve as the digital transformation sweeps across the market. A good combination of social and technical skills appears to be the winning combo.

WHY IT MATTERS: what a difference one year makes! Last year everyone was throwing physical stores under the bus. This year, stores are the savior for retail. I kind of get the point but it comes with huge strings attached as retailers must be willing to transform to digital, embrace new technologies, and change store format (possibly trying more than one). Overall this means huge investments in relatively new and moving technologies that require an infrastructure that is often missing (think secure & high-speed network and wifi in store). Not many of my clients have the appetite or the budget ready to do it. Fun times ahead...

WHY IT MATTERS: Google remains that lead traffic generator for most companies and websites. So it remains important to stay on top - but that does not only mean being in the #1 organic results position. With ads, products and other information snippets appearing before results, marketing teams need even more skills in their toolbox to remain relevant.

WHY IT MATTERS: with baby boomer workforce retiring in massive numbers, robotic solutions to replace low skills jobs are well under way. The future of a fully autonomous robotic warehouse may be years away but expect to see more automation in coming years to augment & complement human workers that will be in short supply...

WHY IT MATTERS: this should be essential reading for anyone to at the very least understand the potential dangers of hacking everywhere and the limits of 2 factor authentification (2FA). The recommendations are all very good and should be t least considered by everyone. Please share.

WHY IT MATTERS: with baby boomer workforce retiring in massive numbers, robotic solutions to replace low skills jobs are well under way. The future of a fully autonomous robotic warehouse may be years away but expect to see more automation in coming years to augment & complement human workers that will be in short supply...

WHY IT MATTERS: Build-a-Bear was one of the keynote speakers at Shoptalk 2019 where the CEO highlighted an important concept: if we don't change our store format we will go out of business. And clearly the single store format concept of the past no longer applies. Retailers must then scramble to update their internal processes and technologies to support multiple store formats, from store-in-a-store to store-in-a-cruiseship concept (that build a bear shared as being one the best concept they tried).

WHY IT MATTERS: more evidence that stores are transforming and moving away from being mini warehouses - shopping is done by eCommerce today. Store now have become destinations for service. This places huge pressurer on digital systems in store that were designed to deliver efficient transactions (think invoice and payment) rather than service like alterations, returns, product information, personalized products, 3D printed products, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: retailers are experimenting with new store formats as they struggle to create new store experiences to draw clients in and keep them interested. Technology is essential here to personalize the store assortment and merchandising, as well as offer eCommerce order pickup and member insights.

WHY IT MATTERS: retail stores innovation often takes the form of new concepts and experience, but more often than not this innovation is enabled by digital technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: stores need to evolve to stay relevant in this era of eCommerce and one-day delivery. Small store formats like this one from IKEA shows that retailers of all sizes will offer their customers more than one option in the future.

For IKEA there are these 3 options: 1) the traditional large warehouse+showroom in the suburbs, 2) the small popup store + design like this in Manhattan, 3) the online store. Also maybe: the IKEA store in a MACY's store? the IKEA store within the Montreal home renovation annual show? What else?...

All these store formats will mean headaches for operations and other support teams if the systems, tools and technologies are not standardized and integrated...

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to know where we stand on AI and this report from element.ai jfgagné provides the data. However, one must be careful as he only looks at researchers - the field of qualified professionals moving into AI is growing FAST. And tools, frameworks and systems to enable AI use is growing at an even faster clip, making AI development much easier even though researcher numbers are limited. Interesting to notice the large presence of Canada in the numbers...

WHY IT MATTERS: this article manages to truly bring insights into what the future of retail may look and feel like, beyond the "new experience" buzzword. Very interesting insights.

WHY IT MATTERS: after 6 years of writing daily about digital transformation in business, we *finally* are seing a more mature approach towards digital where it is *not* about technology and *all* about business strategy. Let's hope we do not have to wait another 6 years to get rid of the CDO ("chief digital officer")...!

WHY IT MATTERS: a great overview of the tech stack in marketing and how to architecture it.

WHY IT MATTERS: the future of privacy will be determined by Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Baidu, etc. This article and others from the NYT dossier on privacy are must read to understand what privacy will mean in the future. Certainly not the "anonymity" that you have been told since childhood...

WHY IT MATTERS: Google is arguably one of the most advanced organizations in the world in their use of machine learning to improve and augment their tools. Learn from their experience in this very detailed 43 rule document on how to tackle your first AI project.

Get the mind map one pager here: https://www.xmind.net/m/yzS4/

WHY IT MATTERS: Design is on the lips of everyone during a Digital Transformation. Learn from the best by applying the methods that @IDEO recommends in their Design Kit.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is maturing so that we are starting to see emerge some best practice, including this one from Google.

WHY IT MATTERS: VICE has published this amazing report on the future of work. The following captures best why some digital transformation (like the one in Estonia), are successful: 

If you look at Estonia and the digital society we have built, most fundamental innovations are not technological but they are legal innovations. The idea that the digital identity is mandatory for all people. The idea that the digital signature is equal to the paper one. These are very simple robust legal innovations.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI represents a huge potential as well as tremendous risks as previously described in the conference of Montreal and the Declaration for Responsible AI. Here McKinsey proposes a framework to identify and address those risks.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/please-read-and-sign-the-montreal-declaration-responsible-ai-ai-montreal/

WHY IT MATTERS: AI represents a huge potential as well as tremendous risks as previously described in the conference of Montreal and the Declaration for Responsible AI. Here McKinsey tries to identify what those risks are.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/please-read-and-sign-the-montreal-declaration-responsible-ai-ai-montreal/

WHY IT MATTERS: delivery is the final frontier in eCommerce and Amazon has made it a lot more expensive for retailers to compete. Who else has a network of distribution centers like this? Walmart? Kroger and other large grocers? They should invest in marketplace technologies to let smaller retailers leverage their distribution network because otherwise, HOW ARE SMALL RETAILER GOING TO COMPETE AGAINST AMAZON?

Once this battle is won by Amazon the last remaining blocker will be last-mile delivery and here UPS-FEDEX-USPS-CanadaPost-etc. are not making moves to cut down on costs so the land is open for a cost effective solution to emerge. Self driving cars? maybe? bringing back the milk runs? maybe.

Any ideas or solutions that come to mind?

WHY IT MATTERS: this article and accompanying video explains the process that successful venture capital firms go through when deciding to invest - or not - in stratups. It breaks down the pitch deck to explain what works and what doesn't. This is great for startups but any business transformation - especially digital transformation - should have a pitch deck like this!

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T_YP1n7kSE

WHY IT MATTERS: data is at the heart of digital transformations and this chart may help ask the right questions and position resources in your team. It works for marketing and elsewhere in the organization as well...

WHY IT MATTERS: cloud computing has moved infrastructure to the cloud, limiting visibility and control of IT teams on key components of the infrastructure that may be required to monitor and troubleshoot. This report from Gartner highlights the different solutions and skills required to cover cloud computing solutions from private cloud to SaaS.

WHY IT MATTERS: emails remain a very important tool in the marketing tool belt. This survey provides insights into what is popular in Canada, US, UK and differentiates between industries and companies. Useful insight.

Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of death worldwide. Proper estimation of car accident risk is critical for appropriate allocation of resources in healthcare, insurance, civil engineering, and other industries. We show how images of houses are predictive of car accidents. We analyze 20,000 addresses of insurance company clients, collect a corresponding house image using Google Street View, and annotate house features such as age, type, and condition. We find that this information substantially improves car accident risk prediction compared to the state-of-the-art risk model of the insurance company and could be used for price discrimination. From this perspective, public availability of house images raises legal and social concerns, as they can be a proxy of ethnicity, religion and other sensitive data.

WHY IT MATTERS: more proof that digital transformation will impact our lives in potentially dramatic ways. Here the use of public street view images of houses help predict the risk of car accident by their owner should not come as a surprise as the digitization of physical world assets provides troves of previously unavailable data for companies to mine and exploit. This quote rom the paper highlights the privacy concerns we should all have from this and other digital analysis: 

In particular, features of the house may be a proxy of ethnicity, religion or other characteristics associated with a social status of a person which are forbidden by the law to be used for any discrimination, e.g. price discrimination in certain jurisdictions. Fast development of modern data collection and computational techniques allows for unprecedented exploitation of various data of clients being not even aware of it and development of corresponding legislation in this matter seems to be outpaced.

WHY IT MATTERS: this has got little to do with digital transformation and more with keeping your privacy. I assume and hope these tricks will never make you uncover a hidden cam but if they do just once, hey that's a good thing!

WHY IT MATTERS: the survey suffers from biais as it comes from bossanova that develops store inventory automation robots. Knowing that however the report does provide insights into the most important problems and time wasting activities that store employees face and that robots can/could help solve.

 

The full report is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hE1fAH6wSrVSrjdkNxICvgdatl_FLQgO/view?usp=sharing 

WHY IT MATTERS: marketing automation requires tooling to manage workflows and ensure single version fo truth - this article lists a number of key tools for social media management.

WHY IT MATTERS: innovation is being empowered by digital tools such as crowdsourcing and this report provides insights into how retails and brands are leveraging these tools - along with new processes and people change management required - to innovate on products and services.

WHY IT MATTERS: Ii find clothes folding robots to be an interesting benchmark in robots use in commercial environments. Folding clothes is a complex task as clothes come in different shapes and made of flexible materials. I've been tracking them since early 2010 where it took many hours to fold one shirt and cost 50000$ or more. At CES 2018, folding clothes machines were introduced at a cost of 3500$ but are yet to be fully commercialized. And now this 5000$ robot from UCBerkeley is another point in the trend. With labour shortages in countries like Canada, having robots perform those mondaine tasks will become important but as we see there are still a few generations before they are very cheap and widely available.

WHY IT MATTERS: Machine Learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence that has received huge interest in recent years. This papers explains the algorithms behind the technology in order to explain how machine learning works and where it can be applied. All in relative simple terms.

For other introduction posts:

- https://fmcs.digital/blog/machine-learning-cheat-sheets-from-stanford-and-mit-are-also-being-translated-in-multiple-languages-on-github-geek-ai-machinelearning-great/

https://fmcs.digital/blog/introduction-to-deep-learning-via-algorithmia-ai-deeplearning-reference/

https://fmcs.digital/blog/suggested-reading-on-ai-to-understand-the-basics/

https://fmcs.digital/blog/complete-chart-of-neuralnetwork-architectures-via-asimovinstitute/

https://fmcs.digital/blog/deeplearning-for-complete-beginners-recognising-handwritten-digits-by-cambridge-coding-academy/

WHY IT MATTERS: this report from PWC provides an interesting viewpoint on the impact of AI on jobs within 20 years. The ripple effect of this work displacement will create opportunities and challenges for governments, cities and businesses alike as many workers will have to move from manual work in agriculture and manufacturing to the service industry. This will impact emerging countries like China more than the UK or Canada because our transition has started a long time ago. It is interesting to see that in reality job loss will be quite important in certain industries.

WHY IT MATTERS: when I ask about what the "store of the future" looks like I often get descriptions of a robot-filled location with huge displays and computer kiosks. In fact the trend is to HIDE the technology to make the store experience more and more about what you had when you visited the general store of the past. Walk in and speak to an employee that is very knowledgeable about you, your needs and the products they have to sell. The only difference is that this knowledge comes from AI, cameras, sensors, and all kind of technologies that support and enhance the retail employee to make you believe they know you and their products. THAT is the magic of the store of the future. Get used to it.

WHY IT MATTERS: an update to the technology radar - always good to stay abreast of the new tools for software development.

WHY IT MATTERS: this very detailed and technical article describes the hardware components that make up the Tesla computer that drives autopilot and that should be powerful enough to enable self-driving in every Tesla today as promised. 

This conversation happened after the release of the paper from our group at MIT on driver functional vigilance during use of Tesla's Autopilot. The Tesla team reached out to me offering a podcast conversation with Mr Musk. I accepted, with full control of questions I could ask and choice of what is released publicly. I ended up editing out nothing of substance. This was an insightful discussion on various aspects of Tesla Autopilot that I hope catalyzes further nuanced conversation on the future of AI-assisted driving. Starts at 2:35. The full outline of the video is as follows:
0:00 Introduction
2:35 Start of conversation: Autopilot motivation
4:01 Display the vehicle's perception of the driving scene
7:11 Algorithms, data, and hardware development
10:23 Edge cases and common cases in driving
12:18 Navigate on Autopilot
13:57 Hardware and software path toward fully autonomy
17:08 Driver supervision of Autopilot
20:13 Human side of Tesla Autopilot (driver functional vigilance)
23:13 Driver monitoring
24:30 Operational design domain
26:57 Securing Autopilot against adversarial machine learning
28:29 Narrow AI and artificial general intelligence
30:10 Physics view of love
31:53 First question for an artificial general intelligence system

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a very geeky interview with Elon Musk on autopilot and the future of self-driving cars. Thoughtful, structured and informative it brings to light a very strong point: the value of a car lies in its capacity to self drive and every Tesla has this feature already builtin. Basically it means that cars will soon cross the threshold of autonomy, opening a whole new era for personal transportation. But more importantly I believe for businesses that rely on delivery logistics: ecommerce of course but also groceries, medical supplies, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: wearables went through a terrible hype cycle a few years back (remember the Apple watch). Looks like, as with many hype cycles, the promises were real but it just took time for the technology to catch up with the hype. One of the wearable promise was wrt to health care.We've seen in recent years a number of studies that prove for example that apple watch can detect heart attacks hours or days before they manifest themselves. So there are killer use cases (pun intended) with wearables and this poster highlights some of them.

WHY IT MATTERS: remains as true this year as it was in the past.

Also read: https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-change-your-passwords/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: this is nothing new. Gartner has spotted and reported on the trend since 2013 at least. What is interesting is that this growth is coupled with an inherent incapacity by marketing teams to select and manage this technology because they simply lack the skills. And very often the IT department lacks the marketing and business knowledge to help. So we can expect some major problems as marketing dept and CMOs find their way into this new reality.

WHY IT MATTERS: trying to create good digital architectures is difficult because the lack of a good definition for the word "architecture" (I know I am late in the game as MF wrote about this in 2003-2005 timeframe, my bad for being so late to catch up). Martin fowler proposes one and provides some examples of good architectures and patterns for us all to learn from. We should have more of this.

WHY IT MATTERS: the equipment in stores is bound to change in the coming years. Here a great example of this innovation. The clothes hanger is connected to provide information and connects the customer to the clothes and the fitting rooms. Great product prototype, would love to have access to the analytics data that was collected on its usage. Would also love to see the operations and maintenance knowledge they gathered during the tests (breaking, malfunctions, stolen, etc.)...

According to Marketplace Pulse research, Amazon-owned private label brands are not nearly as successful as many paint them to be. Amazon has been successful in creating generic items at low prices, but only when using the Amazon brand name (i.e., AmazonBasics and Amazon Essentials). Otherwise, the hundreds of brands and tens of thousands of products launched are not resonating with customers.
On the surface, Amazon is utilizing its knowledge of its powerful retail machine to steer shoppers toward its in-house brands and away from its competitors. The goal of this research was to check if this was true. To validate if the success of AmazonBasics batteries could be extrapolated to other brands and different categories.
We analyzed over 23,000 products launched by Amazon under more than 400 different brands. Some of those brands are private label brands built by Amazon, and some are exclusive brands made by a third party. All under the “Our Brands” umbrella, a collection of Amazon private brands and a curated selection of brands sold exclusively on Amazon.
According to our research the Amazon-owned Top 10 most successful private label brands, including the likes of AmazonBasics and Pinzon, contribute estimated 81% of the total sales. Amazon added more than 100 brands in 2018, but none of the recent launches are category leaders. Amazon has attracted much attention with every new brand they launched, however the assumption that every new brand will be as impactful as AmazonBasics is unfounded. It is Quantity vs. Quality - AmazonBasics represents less than 5% of products launched, but more than 57% of sales.

WHY IT MATTERS: when Amazon started to use its knowledge of best sellers in certain categories to sell products under its own brand, huge alarm bells started to sound. After a few years this study shows that even this unfair advantage is not sufficient to make Amazon the runaway competition killer. But with the expected rise of marketplaces in the coming years, this trend may prove difficult to bear for brands and smaller retailers that distribute on these online channels. Let's hope it doesn't backlash for Amazon and others...

WHY IT MATTERS: the most difficult part of digital transformation is the transformation part. This 90-day approach by HBR will help most team get over the initial "hump" and start their digital innovation process.

WHY IT MATTERS: website page load speed - it's performance - has direct impact on the conversion rate. The faster a site loads, especially on mobile devices, the better are its chances that users will continue exploring, enjoy their experience and possible convert (ie. buy your product/service). To achieve this there are a myriad of things that must be done, starting from design decisions all the way to technology you deploy. This is BIG and has been known for years, with Google being the first in late 1990s to present a very simple home page for its search engine. Yet it seems that we do not learn...

WHY IT MATTERS: we need to look forward and this is one set of insights from a reputable source. Amongst the insights, the low adoption of voice for commerce seems realistic (have you tried any of them? great to set an alarm but too obscure to spend real money IMHO). Also, prediction that there will be 3 major commerce platform behemoths (Amazon + Alibaba + eBay?) also makes sense: small retailers, brace yourself to be heard outside those channels! And large retailers need to update their technologies to target many different marketplaces. Then again, take with a huge grain of salt ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this is one of the most important topic in marketing these days, one based on analytics, data, and the proper integration of an often large number of tools and solutions from multiple vendors and technologies. In a nutshell, a very complex solution to design and implement and, as this article explain, a concept that often is not well understood by even those marketers that are in charge of reporting on attribution. So read this to get started.

WHY IT MATTERS: shopping malls are struggling with retailers closing their stores and foot traffic dropping. This new concept BrandBox by Macerich sounds amazing as it provides online pure plays - and brands with no physical stores - with all the expertise they typically don't have - designers, real estate planners, etc. - along with concept store formats that can be deployed in as little as a few weeks. This makes mall owners value add partners, not just real estate pushers, and gives their properties a new lease on life to replace brick and mortars that are struggling. There is a new business model in there somewhere...

WHY IT MATTERS: the wikibrands collective discusses different topics and issues on digital transformation with different leaders in the field. This is the place to catch up on past programs. Shameless plug, I am also on speaker on the series!

The goal of checkout’s first step is to successfully move new and returning customers to the next step, and not lose customers due to usability or design problems.

Regardless of the specific design you apply, keep the following best practices in mind:

  • Both new and returning customers should be able to quickly identify their login option above the fold, without scrolling, whether on desktop or mobile (especially returning customers within a “Bypass” checkout)
  • New customers should not be asked to decide between creating an account or using guest checkout (unless saving information in a new account is not possible with the ecommerce platform)
  • Buttons should be clearly labeled with specific text, versus “Continue” or “Checkout”
  • Email should be captured as early as possible in the flow

Of course, there’s flexibility to design (and test designs) for the first step of login. Stay tuned for our upcoming Ecommerce Illustrated chapter on checkout testing tips. Have you subscribed?

WHY IT MATTERS: a great discussion of different options for ecommerce checkout. Also, the website other posts provide additional useful information and discussions, happy to see it come back after a long pause...

In this report, TDWI uncovers deeper insights that give users new perspectives on business questions. AI will transform BI and the way people make decisions and act. Rather than start with a hypothesis, data analysts will begin with an AI-driven insight. Instead of querying data to prove or disprove their hypothesis, users will query data to expand or validate a machine-generated insight or recommendation—or they might act on the AI-based insight at face value. But to get to that point, AI-infused BI tools will need to gain people's trust by consistently delivering accurate, relevant, and transparent insights within the context of a business user’s existing workflow.
In the future, AI-infused BI tools will go beyond just surfacing insights; they will recommend ways to address or fix issues, run simulations to optimize processes, create new performance targets based on forecasts, and take action automatically. And yes, machines will make some decisions for us—especially operational decisions in real-time environments. We see this today with fraud detection and online trading systems, but it will become more pervasive.

WHY IT MATTERS: an interesting report that puts artificial intelligence (AI) tools as tools to augment Business Intelligence (BI) and evolve the field beyond analytics into prediction. Also provide some good reference diagrams as this one.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article provides a good overview of the current state of the art in self-driving cars, the players involved, an idea of the investments required and a list of challenges that explains why we are where we are and still have to drive our cars on the road today...

In this report, TDWI uncovers deeper insights that give users new perspectives on business questions. AI will transform BI and the way people make decisions and act. Rather than start with a hypothesis, data analysts will begin with an AI-driven insight. Instead of querying data to prove or disprove their hypothesis, users will query data to expand or validate a machine-generated insight or recommendation—or they might act on the AI-based insight at face value. But to get to that point, AI-infused BI tools will need to gain people's trust by consistently delivering accurate, relevant, and transparent insights within the context of a business user’s existing workflow.
In the future, AI-infused BI tools will go beyond just surfacing insights; they will recommend ways to address or fix issues, run simulations to optimize processes, create new performance targets based on forecasts, and take action automatically. And yes, machines will make some decisions for us—especially operational decisions in real-time environments. We see this today with fraud detection and online trading systems, but it will become more pervasive.

WHY IT MATTERS: an interesting report that puts artificial intelligence (AI) tools as tools to augment Business Intelligence (BI) and evolve the field beyond analytics into prediction. Also provide some good reference diagrams as this one.

Market Guide for Security Threat Intelligence Products and Services. Key Findings:
- The term “threat intelligence” covers a diverse set of capabilities.
Client interest in industry-led government and commercial TI has increased significantly during the past two years. There are still large numbers of providers in this market, with startups also entering.
- The number and diversity of TI services, as well as expertise, have created an environment in which purchasers often struggle to compare services, and there’s still no single provider to address all of them. Many vendors can provide access to information; fewer provide truly anticipatory content or curation based on customized intelligence.
- The value of these services is sometimes constrained by the customer’s ability to afford, absorb, contextualize and, especially, use the information provided by the services.

WHY IT MATTERS: threat intelligence is a new field introduced by digital transformation. As more data is created and more processes are transferred to digital, the potential threats of fraud and other security breaches increases and requires new resources, new processes and new tools. This Gartner report provides a reference document to understand the field and help select partners.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is making its way to usable applications faster than ever with tools and frameworks in the public domain and very large datasets to train models on. Even university students can deliver value in few weeks of class so why is it not more prevalent in corporations?

WHY IT MATTERS: every time a marketing team creates a promotional campaign in eCommerce (I would argue it applies to pretty much any campaign), the number of promotion outlets that must be touched to ensure the campaign reaches its intended audience is HUGE as evidence by this 20-step checklist. Morever, the checklist highlights the need for standards, tools, and automation - especially with regards to data consolidation and attribution - that is required but often failing in most organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI and machine learning will be embedded into every product and solution in the future, as evidenced by this recent SAP technology vision. For most companies, they will need to focus on data gathering, cleaning and building capabilities to analyze and use AI insights than to develop their own AI solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to hear what leaders in the field of ecommerce identify as key trends to adapt digital strategies accordingly or eliminate digital blind spots.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article is an excellent introduction to 5G use case and possible impact in the next 5-10 years by a leader in the field of mobile.

WHY IT MATTERS: retailers do not need to worry about AI too much: all product vendors will include AI into their products. However retailers need to start collecting and cleanup their data because without it AI will not deliver expected results.

WHY IT MATTERS: code reviews remain a simple way to improve software quality and it is a wonder why not more is bein gdone on that front. This study provides some benchmark - although you need a big grain of salt because it comes from a company that sells code review software. Still, better than nothing and full of good insights.

WHY IT MATTERS: using AR to visualize how you look in a hat is possible. The article provides links and other retail use cases where AR may prove useful. I tried it out and found it a bit on the gadget side but - no app to install and very simple use made it easy to try it out. Looks promising, especially combined with AI where it could "suggest" hats based on your outfit. This may prove a useful business case...

WHY IT MATTERS: this simple extension will inform you when your user-password has been stolen - prompting you to change your password or take action. Must have for everyone.

WHY IT MATTERS: want to know what augmented reality will look like in 10 or 20 years. Read this. But don't expect it to come together in the short-term, this is a *long* play

WHY IT MATTERS: I often fall into the trap of creating a digital transformation strategy that includes every bell and whistle when in fact it should focus on a few important things and leave the rest behind. What's difficult of course is deciding what to leave behind...

WHY IT MATTERS: facial recognition has many good use cases and this article explains in detail how tracking pig faces in China is one of them!

Mind mapping is a creative exercise that begins when you write down a central idea or theme, then draw lines that branch out into new "nodes," each with a new word or idea that's related to the first.

Simple enough. And you can certainly mind map on a blank piece of paper, but digitalizing the process lends convenience and flexibility to the process. With a digital mind map, you're not confined to the size of your paper and can easily move ideas around with little effort.

We tested dozens of mind mapping tools, and here we'll present the 11 best to help you decide which is right for mapping that mind of yours.

WHY IT MATTERS; I find mind mapping a useful tool and this article and the other one referenced will help you get started.

WHY IT MATTERS: China is using facial recognition to monitor its citizens, this is a well documented fact. Unfortunately, not all the steps required to protect this very private information are being taken, as evidenced by this article. This raises again the importance of security to be built into our every activities, especially those that involve government or security activities.

WHY IT MATTERS: the article explains how this team has successfully retrieved private information from discarded connected devices. It raises concerns about the disposal of connected products which, has everyone knows, will soon included pretty much everything in our homes and offices, from lightbulbs to refrigerators.

WHY IT MATTERS: there are already a number of usable applications for AI in use today in organizations worldwide, large and small. This is one good list from a16z in an easy to listen video with great examples of innovative startups in the field.

WHY IT MATTERS: there are already a number of usable applications for AI in use today in organizations worldwide, large and small. This is one good list from Forbes.

WHY IT MATTERS: frameworks tools and technologies for machine learning have evolved very rapidly and play in big part in making AI a reality.

WHY IT MATTERS: a recent survey provides numerous insights into email marketing tools and techniques. A great reference with numerous examples, tools and technologies. One highlight of the report are all the tools available that include AI and machine learning technologies to help craft the best content.

WHY IT MATTERS: a recent survey provides numerous insights into email marketing tools and techniques. A great reference with numerous examples, tools and technologies. One highlight of the report is the role that AI plays in the creation and delivery of email campaigns in the coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS: a recent survey provides numerous insights into email marketing tools and techniques. A great reference with numerous examples, tools and technologies. One highlight of the report is the importance / ROI of email but also ads, SEO and content marketing: there is no silver bullet but rather a good mix of solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a good sample of some of the key points heard at Shoptalk 2019 last week as it relates to the challenges established retailers face today and the transformation they are all embarking on.

WHY IT MATTERS: this report presents some interesting use case where AI and Big Data are leveraged to automate and extend marketing capabilities for well known retailers and manufacturers.

“No industry,” wrote Harvard Business Review at the close of 2018, “is failing faster than retail.” At risk of contradicting the Crimson: bullshit. Sweeping proclamations make for great sound bites and (scholarly) clickbait. But the truth? Not so much.

At the opposite extreme lay headlines trumpeting “voice-search buying,” “Instagram-worthy pop-ups,” and “VR-enabled O2O experiences.”

What the data shows — and what the leaders we spoke to from brands at the forefront said — isn’t that retail is failing nor that success is tied to innovation for innovation’s sake. Instead, it points to the now unignorable center of commerce: customer choice. What is the future of ecommerce for 2019 and beyond? 10 insights offer the answer:
Ecommerce v Retail: The Dichotomy Ends
DTC Emerges as Commerce’s Future
More than “Digitally Native” Tactics
Content Becomes the Holy Grail of Growth
Physical and Digital Solidify Their Relationship
Social Commerce Evolves or Limps to the Grave
Channels Must Deliver on Their Promises
Mobile Buying Is (Almost) the New Normal
Micro-Moments Win or Lose Conversions
International Ecommerce Expands to the East

WHY IT MATTERS: full of insights and analysis and data on the state of eCommerce in 2019.

WHY IT MATTERS: it looks like the next time will be better with a focus on business applications rather than personal life. Listen to the video that Boeing has produced where they used Glass to help assembly of wire bundles in airplanes using heads-up display in Google Glass: impressive.

https://9to5google.com/2017/07/18/google-glass-enterprise-edition-officially-announced-with-multiple-upgrades-video/ 

I can see many more applications in transportation, order delivery, manufacturing, and maybe even retail where repairs or service require some form of step-by-step process to complete the work. Expect this in 2019.

WHY IT MATTERS: the agile approach has been popular in software engineering and other technical groups within startups. However, as this article shows, agile can and should be applied everywhere in the organization. Here they describe how it used successfully in customer service. The concept is simple: empower your resources to be autonomous, work in small teams that have ownership and give them the digital tools they need to work end to end.

WHY IT MATTERS: this annual survey let's corporation compare their digital transformation efforts to others. Unfortunately it seems that digital still equals technology for many, even though the main recommendations of leaders in the field remain focussed on people and process. Oh well...

WHY IT MATTERS: as Apple first popularized, the store is a combination of showroom space, education area, and customer service. What's missing? Buying products. Buying products is something you do online, not in store. This has profound impact on technologies that are required in the store. No longer is a POS sufficient, now you need mobile sales rep devices to inform about products and combinations, high speed wifi to power sensors / capture camera feeds / perform analytics / deliver screen content / enable user device connection to the internet, dynamic displays, ecommerce pick & return, smart displays/mirrors, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: we all wonder how we will ever apply AI into our daily activities given how complex it is to develop AI and the lack of resources on the market. But the same way you don't need to know how combustion engines work to drive a car or how HTTP or TCP IP work to search the web on Google, AI will find its way into our everyday tools (think Google assistant) and impact every job on the market. No need to hire an AI dev team in your organization but you need to make sure you use the latest AI-infused tools to gain that advantage.

WHY IT MATTERS: blockchain has a negative aura since the bitcoin debacle but it doesn't change the fact that it represents a a major technology breakthough that should be considered by retailers that face issues in a number of use cases - way beyond payment. For example, product traceability in the food business or personalized coupons represent low hanging fruits that companies are starting to address by providing new solutions that leverage the blockchain.

CSPs are integrated platforms that provide content-focused services, repositories, APIs, solutions and business processing tools to support digital business and transformation. Typical CSP use cases include document management, back-office processes, business process applications, records management and team productivity. A CSP has its own repository. CSP services and data may also integrate with external, non-native repositories and applications through prebuilt connectors, API

development or prepackaged integrations. CSPs have web, desktop and mobile app interfaces that let users navigate through and work with the different content services. The platforms may also offer prebuilt solutions for vertical and horizontal content processes such as case management, legal matter management, contract management and many more. CSPs are available on-premises, as hosted services, in the cloud (SaaS and/or PaaS) or in hybrid architectures that combine cloud and on-premises storage and/or services.

WHY IT MATTERS: I was surprised to see Alfresco still alive. Looks like they are now niched in this category of products focussed on content management. Looking into it further you will find that there are use cases that mandate such tools and technologies, such as data governance and in that context these tools are very useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: tools for BI and analytics remain more popular than ever. Microsoft claims the top spot again and given the large penetration of Microsoft in organizations with office365 I find it hard to believe when their solutions are not used more than they are...

WHY IT MATTERS: one page, 75 elements that will transform retail in coming years, most are technology-driven. Shoptalk conference is all about those.

WHY IOT MATTERS: fast & cheap delivery is the last issue to solve for eCommerce. This massive investment means that the technology will get deployed more widely. Unfortunately, as opposed to UBER, the company must manufacture deploy and manage the fleet of vehicle, which means that you will not it Nuro explode on the market in a few years like UBER did in the past 5 years. 

WHY IT MATTERS: a great collection of tools that I always struggle to find when I need them, some free, some not. 

WHY IT MATTERS: sales of furniture online is difficult because it is difficult to visualize the product in your environment. At least in the store you can view the product in a fake setting (think IKEA rooms you have to travel through during your shopping trip). Augmented Reality has been tried to enhance paper catalogues in the past but now Amazon is trying to leverage 3D directly within their online store to help you decide if that table and sofa go well together. This is obviously a test and the links below should provide you with additional food for thought on the matter.

 

Hubstair a startup that helps retailers do a bit what Amazon showroom does: https://www.hubstairs.com/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/canadian-tire-enhances-2016-paper-catalogue-via-augmentedreality/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/google-project-tango-demonstrates-how-to-buy-wayfair-furniture-in-augmentedreality-ecommerce-googleio/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/ikea-2014-catalog-can-view-and-place-furniture-in/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/augmented-reality-catalog-places-ikea-furniture-in/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/apple-next-killer-app-may-be-augmentedreality-ikea-demo-and-others-to-come/ 

In China, the either-or retail equation is being cast aside for New Retail, which merges the best of the in-store and online experiences. To Alibaba, success these days also means helping brands go omnichannel. An increasing number of brands are doing just that, tapping Alibaba’s New Retail tools, erasing the lines between online and offline. 

The key to New Retail is the mobile phone, which provides the critical connection between online and offline retail to consumers. Brands in China have an advantage here because they don’t need to convince consumers to download and use their apps. That’s because they know 500 million consumers already have the Tmall app. “China is moving much faster than the West in this evolution because the Western retail model is built on legacy systems. China’s model is disruptive,” said Frank Lavin, CEO of ExportNow, a company which helps Western brands sell to China. “China does not have the legacy of malls and big-box stores like the West. China has no traditional retail model to defend.”

WHY IT MATTERS: retailers in China are growing fast and exploring new ways to interact with customers through digital means, providing new experiences without the burden of the legacy systems. This article reviews the different solutions Alibaba is exploring to move from being a digital online leader to an omnichannel powerhouse.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is part of a short series on evolutionary architectures which discuss new approaches regarding software architecture that integrate the concept of architecture validation during the build and deployment process, much akin to what is being done with TDD to validate the functional requirements are met. This remains complex to implement IMHO but nevertheless has the merit to address a real problem with architecture, that is their lack of enforcement. Geeks, read it! Others, well, you might find this a bit obtuse... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: modeled on the business model canvas, this one focusses on the important questions to ask when building AI solutions. I look forward to trying it out on a real project to see if it helps ask the right questions and prioritize actions while providing a one-page reference like the other does. 

Enterprise Architecture on a Page is an evidence-based model of enterprise architecture (EA) on a single page. It provides a one-page aggregated view of popular EA artifacts used in organizations with their most essential properties, including their informational content, representation format, high-level structure, overall meaning, typical usage, temporal lifecycle, general role, key purpose and associated benefits.

WHY IT MATTERS: EA is a great tool to help create the big picture when doing a digital transformation. This one pager helps guide everyone towards selecting the right tools for the job.

WHY IT MATTERS: consumer package goods companies (CPGs) are being hit by digital transformation as we disintermediate the retailers with direct delivery (drop shipping), online distribution and the need to continue to serve traditional retailers with warehouses and stores. Moreover, beyond the supply chain, CPGs have a increased need to know their customer, something that is often difficult to do with retailers blocking access to valuable data. This survey by BCG provides useful categorization of the impact to CPGs, along with some %

WHY IT MATTERS: visual pattern recognition using machine learning techniques is fast becoming a commodity with services like this one. It allows developers to deploy pre-trained solutions for image analysis. Not sure it is the best model or the perfect solution but it does lower the barrier of entry for most developers in the field.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI, blockchain, IOT are still early enough in their lifespan that it is easy for anyone to get in, given that they have the interest and willingness to learn. This article describes 2 students, Ron and Alex, got into AI. It reminds me very much of the early Internet years. So get in, now, while it is still relatively easy.

WHY IT MATTERS: this annual survey let's corporation compare their digital transformation efforts to others. Unfortunately it seems that digital still equals technology for many, even though the main recommendations of leaders in the field remain focussed on people and process. Oh well...

WHY IT MATTERS: this annual survey let's corporation compare their digital transformation efforts to others. Unfortunately it seems that digital still equals technology for many, even though the main recommendations of leaders in the field remain focussed on people and process. Oh well...

WHY IT MATTERS: we hear too much about AI with many experts fighting hard to make the difference between AI, machine learning and deep learning. My summary is that AI is a long way in the future but that machine learning impacts will be well within my lifetime - 10 to 25 years from now. This is what I prepare my customers for in my strategic plans.

WHY IT MATTERS: and old interview that remains as relevant today as it was 10 years ago. We cannot just plug frameworks and libraries together and expect our systems to behave in a predictable manner and evolve gracefully over time...

WHY IT MATTERS: everyone needs to be aware of the potential downsides of AI and actively participate to do good in the field. Plus it is a declaration that was drafted and released in Montreal, so #proudToPromote!

WHY IT MATTERS: product selection is very complex these days and should never be done only on the basis of a list of features but rather based on a carefully crafted set of business use cases that represent your specific business realities including processes, technologies and customer requests. This article provides an example of such use cases in the context of CDP product selection.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital technology is something that executives at the highest level must master. The AI report shows how often certain words are uttered in earnings calls of public corporations and it shows what is trendy: AI and machine learning. Big data and cloud are not. What does this mean: if you are not deploying actively big data and cloud solutions, you re behind. If you are not piloting AI or ML projects, then your investors will see you are behind the times and missing out.

WHY IT MATTERS: everybody knows that AI is the new darling for startups but seing it in a chart is quite impressive!

WHY IT MATTERS: this reports helps understand where we stand regarding AI. As I read this report and others I realize how much effort is being devoted to AI yet how much work and road still lies ahead.

WHY IT MATTERS: future architecture are event-driven. Here is Gartner's take on the matter.

WHY IT MATTERS: on the heals of NRF2019, this report highlights some of the new concepts, experiences and technologies that are fast becoming essential for physical retail survival. For my french-speaking readers I encourage you to look at Nathalie's Innocenti 3min video summary of the NRF store visits we have done together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEL9RtjbFc 

WHY IT MATTERS: watch this short video to see what Alibaba is doing to transform the retail experience, the retail stores and truly create an omni-channel experience. Can this model be applied in North America or Europe remains to be seen but it certainly raises some very interesting options for what the future of retail will look like: try things, get service and counsel, then buy everything online and get it to your home in 30 minutes.

WHY IT MATTERS: retail is embracing digital disruption and as is often the case innovation tends to be all over the place. This article is great review of what's been done during the year and exposes how far ahead China is in this retail innovation quest...

WHY IT MATTERS: this is part of a short series on evolutionary architectures which discuss new approaches regarding software architecture that integrate the concept of architecture validation during the build and deployment process, much akin to what is being done with TDD to validate the functional requirements are met. This remains complex to implement IMHO but nevertheless has the merit to address a real problem with architecture, that is their lack of enforcement. Geeks, read it! Others, well, you might find this a bit obtuse... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this is part of a short series on evolutionary architectures which discuss new approaches regarding software architecture that integrate the concept of architecture validation during the build and deployment process, much akin to what is being done with TDD to validate the functional requirements are met. This remains complex to implement IMHO but nevertheless has the merit to address a real problem with architecture, that is their lack of enforcement. Geeks, read it! Others, well, you might find this a bit obtuse... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: pretty basic considerations about digital transformation is that "Google is King" and thus your website / mobile app / ecommerce must all rank high in google searches. This guide provides insights from the best!

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is becoming easier to use in real world applications, as evidenced by this recent forrester wave. It positions a number of tools for natural language generation to help with creation of analytics reports that present results in textual format instead of numbers and charts as is often the case with report generators. Good to know. 

WHY IT MATTERS: a great video to kickoff a weekend catchup on important concepts. This guy is amazing for his grasp on AI, and his ability to explain and illustrate complex concepts. Beware: some of the questions are nit-picking on subjects outside the talk and you will appreciate as I did the patience of the speaker to listen and answer those. Bravo!

Phishing attacks are increasingly using impersonation to bypass traditional defense mechanisms. Weak sender identification will continue to present opportunities for creative attacks. Security and risk management leaders should use this research to adjust their strategy and business processes.
Key Challenges
Phishing attacks are still increasing as a targeting method of attackers. Phishing attacks targeting credentials will continue to escalate as applications and data migrate to better-protected cloud providers.
Email is not designed to truly authenticate sender identity. Efforts like DMARC to authenticate domains are not granular enough to authenticate users and do not address all attack types.
Most implemented secure email gateways (SEGs) are not designed with post-delivery detection and remediation techniques, costing incident responder and email admin time and reducing the feedback loop from end users.
User phishing education is a good start toward people-centric security, but current email security does not provide users with any indicators of the trust they can put in emails or the proper workflow for dealing with suspect emails.
Recommendations
Security and risk management leaders responsible for endpoint and mobile security should:
Upgrade secure email gateway solutions to cloud versions that include phishing protection, particularly for impostor or business email compromise (BEC) protection.
Integrate employees into the solution and build capabilities to detect and respond to suspect attacks.
Work with business managers to develop standard operating procedures for handling sensitive data and financial transactions.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
By 2023, sender identity verification will be a common critical component on secure email gateways and other anti-phishing solutions.
By 2023, anti-phishing education will be a critical part of the feedback loop between end users and email security solutions.
Through 2023, business compromise attacks will be persistent and evasive, leading to large financial fraud losses for enterprises and data breaches for healthcare and government organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: we often forget that it is the simple things that make us vulnerable. Security remains a key challenge with any digital transformation and this report can help identify solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: great analysis but as with every predictions, take with grain of salt... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: order fulfillment is an essential component of ecommerce digital transformation and there are solutions to reconfigure existing warehouses to improve picking efficiency and maximise storage space.

Speed is critical, which means grocers must jettison their traditional—and slow—approach to implementing new initiatives. They should instead take an agile approach using “concept sprints.” Characterized by quick decision making, a focus on tangible outcomes, constant customer validation, colocated and multidisciplinary teams, rapid iteration, and careful attention to internal capability building, concept sprints can reduce time-to-market from four to six months to just four weeks.

Exhibit 5 shows how concept sprints can be used across the organization to accelerate the launch of high-priority initiatives. Leading retailers have used such an approach to introduce new in-store digital solutions, refine picking algorithms in warehouses, or develop new products.

WHY IT MATTERS: agile approach is getting into every industries and organizations, even prehistoric ones like grocery!

WHY IT MATTERS: as eCommerce gains traction, retail space needs to shrink and retailers have to consider options for their existing space. McKenzie provides some options here.

One of the biggest factors that differentiate the top economic performers from others is how quick and adaptable they are in setting, executing, and adjusting their digital strategies—in other words, the velocity and adaptability of their operating models for digital strategy. Both are necessary for companies to achieve first-mover (or very-fast-follower) status, which we know to be a source of significant economic advantage. So how do they do it? We looked at the frequency with which companies follow 11 operational practices of digital strategy. With the exception of M&A—which typically requires a much longer time frame than the other ten, often due to regulatory reasons—respondents in the top revenue decile say their companies carry out each one more frequently than their peers (Exhibit 1). The link between frequency and performance also holds up when looking at earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT).

WHY IT MATTERS: McKinsey has been showing a direct correlation between digital leaders and financial success on every levels (profitability, earnings, share price) since at least 2011 and the days of social media and enterprise 2.0. This study is great as it provides recommendations on how to become a better digital organization.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the time of the year for predictions. Deloitte has an interesting grouping that is technology centric.

WHY IT MATTERS: I've said it for years, delivery is the last frontier for eCommerce to make a killing in retail. MCKenzie agrees! ;-)

What do an iPaaS, an event-driven architecture and an advanced event broker have in common?

They’re probably all critical to the success of your enterprises’ digital transformation.

Read this paper to learn how you can leverage these tools in unison, to integrate your new and old technologies with modern frameworks and design patterns, and enable real-time event-distribution across all your environments and geos.

WHY IT MATTERS: integration of systems is the main challenge of IT organizations today. This article presents what a state of the art integration solution should include. From a Canadian leader, Solace.

WHY IT MATTERS: (in french) a great quick overview of the retail shopping experience and marketing trends as seen in NYC and NRF 2019. If you are in France, attend these events for more : http://www.mcclients.fr/nrf-2019-restitution/

WHY IT MATTERS: we tend to minimize email as a digital transformation tool but we should not. Here are key statistics that you can use to benchmark your email marketing activities.

WHY IT MATTERS: social media remains one of the main components of digital transformation. Facebook remains the dominant player as evidenced by this survey of mostly small and medium businesses. Nevertheless, it shows that companies need to automate and dedicate resources to produce and manage content, which remains a challenge.

WHY IT MATTERS: malls, cities and other large property owners should be more data driven, as is expressed in this article.

To succeed in the digital age, mall operators will need to instill a culture of fact-based decision making throughout the organization. In addition to implementing advanced-analytics tools, they should invest in collecting more of the valuable data that will inform their business decisions. For instance, they can deploy new technologies (such as beacons, granular Wi-Fi, and facial-recognition cameras) to capture behavioral data. They can launch mallwide loyalty programs to gather individual transaction data and generate insights into the customer journey across the entire mall ecosystem. They can also pursue partnerships with tenants—for instance, by negotiating preferred rents in exchange for data sharing. Armed with robust data and advanced analytics tools, malls have the potential to revitalize and revolutionize not just their own business performance but that of the rest of the retail industry as well.

WHY IT MATTERS: mall owners - and other large property space owners such as cities - should invest in technology that they can resell or leverage to be more effective and valuable to their retail tenants. The article explains some ways to do it.

WHY IT MATTERS: mall owners can leverage digital technologies to improve their revenues. The analysis proposed here appears straightforward and should be considered by any mall owner. I also feel it may be used by other large rental property owners such as large retail store chains or even cities that suffer from loss of physical retail revenues.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article explains how and why security companies must rely on humans to teach computers how to do object recognition on security camera feeds. This may lead to privacy concerns until such time that camera video feeds are encrypted and access to the data controlled. Today, neither is done.

WHY IT MATTERS: being able to measure maturity of your organization as it relates to AI is one of the key element to start crafting a digital strategy.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is transformative because it can solve problems in 5 areas that were previously difficult to apply computer engineering and technologies before the advent of AI.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great reference to understand how and where to leverage AI in organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: we must learn from the best. Ng is one of the best. Read, learn, apply.

WHY IT MATTERS: this book provides a wealth of insights to help your IT team craft a proper threat intelligence strategy and organization.

WHY IT MATTERS: you will see AI enhancing tools in retail to sell better and improve margins. This article presents 4 use case already being deployed.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great study on the best jobs for the future.

WHY IT MATTERS: if you study or practice law and plan to retire within the next 10 years, you can move on and not read this one. If you plan to keep working in the field, then you should study programming or develop some other tech skill to remain relevant in the coming years. Consider yourself warned! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to leverage one-pagers when doing strategic planning...

WHY IT MATTERS: AR potential to deliver new experiences is huge and this article explores some of them.

WHY IT MATTERS: technology with the most potential to transform our lives, AR. This is where we are at and what we can expect in 2019.

WHY IT MATTERS: this older article from McKinsey helps highlight the importance of IT - and I would assume digital technologies if the paper was written in 2019.

More insights into a framework to leverage IT in M&A context here: https://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com/sophisticated_finance/2011/01/it-due-diligence.html 

WHY IT MATTERS: Looks like the social networks algorithm favor people with a very large audience. If you are one of those or want to become one, read this guide to understand what to do to grow to followers on LinkedIn. I assume the suggestions also work on twitter and facebook, if you are into that kind of thing.

WHY IT MATTERS: I wrote about it so much in the past but have not recently. I find new year resolution to be the best time to start good new habits. Here this article provides reasons why you should start using password manager tools, and provides a list to help you get started. Now, GO!

Digital transformations are, by their very nature, complex. There are multiple moving parts, integrated processes and technologies, and the need for expertise that cannot already be found in the company. In most firms, however, there is a small cadre of technology professionals who can impose relative order on the proceedings. CEOs and CIOs should consider the benefits of pulling enterprise architects closer to the center: bringing them to the table with business leaders, devising metrics that reveal the value of their work, and creating the type of incentives that will challenge them and prompt them to stay for the long term. Such an approach is critical not just for limiting risk and protecting against the potential challenges and downsides of digital transformations but also for ensuring a clear upside—a close and lasting partnership between the business and IT.

WHY IT MATTERS: I've practiced enterprise architecture since I learned from the best at Capgemini back in 2003. Although the concept and the tools are great, and I use them daily, I find the EA groups in large organizations is quite shameful. This article provides insights into what EA groups can bring. If only the architects could step down from their throne to deliver something useful to their organizations, as suggested here...

WHY IT MATTERS: a great infographics for digital transformation professionals.

WHY IT MATTERS: great visual explanation of how driverless cars see the world. Applications of this technology are endless in business: self driving wheelbarrows on shop floors or construction sites, worker safety warning systems in dangerous environments, package delivery system in hospitals, etc. Content starts at 7m30s approximately

WHY IT MATTERS: the electronic payment apps can save huge amounts for retailers, and it is a loyalty card at same time. Made popular by Starbucks payment apps which now accounts for 14% of all transactions, it is a wonder why not more retailers adopt it. The reason probably is that it requires internal systems to be upgraded which is often a very difficult thing to do.

WHY IT MATTERS: chatbots were all the rage last year, often described as a silver bullet to solve all kinds of problems easilly. Now they have become one more solution in the digital transformation arsenal, with PROs and CONs. This post describes the process to setup and configure two popular tools and in the process highlight their capabilities and shortcomings.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to know when looking ahead to the year to come, planning digital budgets and strategy.

WHY IT MATTERS: it doesn't really matter but it is a great example of what you can do with digital tools... and too many hours on you hands! Joking aside, when concerned about mobility and transformation of cities, this may actually be a useful tool.

WHY IT MATTERS: the article explains quite well the challenge to building song playlists and why you often feel that your "discovery" lists on spotify fail to have you discover anything really "new", as opposed to when humans are creating the lists...

WHY IT MATTERS: looking back over this year, they were right: technology has had a huge impact on retail in 2018.

WHY IT MATTERS: cool to see people improving old industries such as the textile industry.

WHY IT MATTERS: with labour shortage and minimum wage increase you will see experiments like this one flourish in retail stores. Not certain that a robot like this will be helpful nor that it will meet the marketing definition of enhanced customer experience in store... But it sure will address a major pain of mine: finding a sales rep in a RONA store on weekends!

WHY IT MATTERS: the impact of self-driving cars for cities that were designed and built around cars remains unknown. Phoenix being one of them where Google waymo self-driving taxis is being tested at scale today. This article explores the possible impacts and they are fascinating, going well beyond transportation.

WHY IT MATTERS: we are all struggling with the concept of new retail store experiences - especially how they will be created and maintained. This playbook from Microsoft provides a glympse into their vision for the future of retail.

WHY IT MATTERS: the video provides a glympse inside a large automated warehouse. Conversation starter at the christmas table!

WHY IT MATTERS: IOT is a key technology trend but as this survey shows its penetration remains small - and thus the future looks good.

WHY IT MATTERS: when Forbes starts to investigate a topic then it often means it is top of mind to its readers. This article provides isights into what is being deployed in retail stores using internet of things technologies.

WHY IT MATTERS: a framework developed by IOT pioneers Bosch Innovation.

WHY IT MATTERS: the article describes all the sources of information you can leverage to gather knowledge about the world.

WHY IT MATTERS: I wrote about the buffer open culture in the past and find this latest post to be a great summary of the best practice they have put in place over the years. Critics will say this only applies in startups but I would argue that 1) Buffer is already a 6+ years old 80 person team company 2) Large companies are composed of business units often much smaller in size than Buffer. That being said, many of my colleagues like coming to work in the morning and interacting with people face to face during the day so this model is not for everyone. But if you are looking for a different way to work, then I suggest you look at this and the new agile tribes that I wrote about previously.

for more go here: fmcs.digital/?s=buffer  and fmcs.digital/blog/digital-agile-transformation-at-ing-shows-it-is-possible-to-transform-legacy-non-technology-organizations-to-agile-using-the-concepts-of-tribes-squads-chapters-via-mckinsey-digitaltransformat/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: this short book provides information to make sense of a new kind of tool that marketers should add to their arsenal: customer journey analytics platforms.

WHY IT MATTERS: a recent review of the top PIM solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: used to be that a PIM was a nice to have solution. Not anymore.

Online grocery spending continues to grow at a rapid pace, now making up 5.5% of total grocery spending in the U.S., according to a new study from advisory firm Brick Meets Click. Nearly 30% of U.S. households buy groceries online, and most of the near-term growth in online grocery spending will continue to come from this group of active online grocery shoppers.
Over the past year, online grocery shoppers increased their weekly online spending from 28% to 46% of their total grocery spend, the firm found. Their average order size increased from $62 in 2017 to $69 in 2018.
The report says that while grocers are well-positioned to meet the growing demands of online grocery shopping, Amazon, which has 77% household penetration, will continue to challenge other retailers when it comes to capturing online grocery spending – especially as it leverages iPrime membership benefits through Whole Foods.

WHY IT MATTERS: online grocery retail is the last industry to digitize and these figures seems to indicate that it is entering the world of "Real" business opportunity - after 25 years of hype!

WHY IT MATTERS : this is a new category of products that I was unaware of before now. With the importance of customer centricity in the digital transformation, I expect these tools to be very useful in large organizations.

Light Guide Systems, an augmented reality tool that is transforming manual assembly and manufacturing processes for companies worldwide, is working with HP Inc., to launch a new technology tool—Light Guide Systems PRO. Utilizing the immersive computing platform Sprout PRO by HP, Light Guide Systems PRO modernizes manual assembly processes in commercial and education applications.

Introducing the Light Guide PRO™

Light Guide Systems helps reduce errors and radically improves manufacturing assembly processes by projecting directly onto a predefined and established operating “canvas” designed for small parts while providing audio and visual prompts, guidance, pacing and direction. Light Guide Systems PRO™ takes the tool to the next level by incorporating its proprietary software into the powerful yet compact Sprout PRO PC platform to deliver a clean and compact package that is portable, flexible and affordable.

WHY IT MATTERS: augmented reality has yet to make its way from gadget of pokemon GO to commercial and business settings. This product recently announced is part of this new generation of systems that use AR to improve manufacturing, quality, efficiency and training. A short video and more picture will give you ideas of what it can do.

Companies transforming to become customer-obsessed are using journey analytics to help them become customer-led, insights-driven, fast, and connected. Forrester defines journey analytics as:  "An analytics practice that combines quantitative and qualitative data to analyze customer behaviors and motivations across touchpoints and over time to optimize customer interactions and predict future behavior." 
By using data to look at high-level journeys and to zoom in on microjourneys and the defining moments within them, journey analytics helps companies isolate, quantify, model, and track opportunities to improve CX, operational efficiency, and business results. Journey analytics stitches together data horizontally, across silos, to provide an integrated view of the customer and enable companies to test a wide variety of journey hypotheses in near real time to determine which combinations of interactions will yield the desired business results. 
Journey analytics involves four core capabilities, and we have segmented the space into two categories: 
  • Journey visioning, which focuses on data fusion, journey design and planning, and journey testing and optimization.
  • Journey orchestration, which includes the journey visioning capabilities but also delivers — and places a greater emphasis on — journey automation and orchestration.

WHY IT MATTERS : this is a new category of products that I was unaware of before now. With the importance of customer centricity in the digital transformation, I expect these tools to be very useful in large organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: retailers beware. Or maybe not. I've seen trucks come to parking lots of warehouses where I worked summer jobs for years - they also cover garage and other locations where there are workers but no time or no convenience store close by. This robomart may replace those and expand to convenience store after... 

WHY IT MATTERS: self-driving cars may actually impact the truck transportation industry in a huge way. The papers explores how it will do so.

WHY IT MATTERS: we often think of fitbits as gadgets. They are but are also paving the way for future products that have huge potential.

WHY IT MATTERS: good to help understand how alpha go AI works.

This report from leading global research and advisory firm, Forrester, identifies the 12 most significant customer journey analytics platform providers today, and reveals how each measures up based on 26 different evaluation criteria, to help you make the right choice for your organization. You'll get a complete overview of the current customer journey analytics market, including:

  • The two primary journey analytics provider categories, visioning and orchestration, and four core capabilities: (1) data fusion, (2) journey design & planning, (3) journey testing & optimization, and (4) journey automation & orchestration
  • The 2018 Forrester Wave Journey Visioning Platform rankings and scorecard
  • A breakdown of each journey analytics provider’s offering, strengths, specialties, and customer base
  • Key criteria that helps leaders stand out from the pack

WHY IT MATTERS : this is a new category of products that I was unaware of before now. With the importance of customer centricity in the digital transformation, I expect these tools to be very useful in large organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a major effort by AI leaders. Most interesting when you read it backwards, it sheds light on what is possible or will soon be possible by AI algorithms. Must read.

WHY IT MATTERS: the website provides a number of use case and examples of the use of AI in supply chain, along with a very comprehensive framework to put the pieces together.

WHY IT MATTERS: factories are being transformed by digital at a rapid pace and this paper provides insights into that transformation, including how technologies are being deployed today.

WHY IT MATTERS: there are many options to consider when building a mobile app. This paper helps determine the best decision to make.

WHY IT MATTERS: a shameless bit of self promotion for our first webcast on digital transformation with other members of the wikibrands collective that is starting to take shape. Short, 20 minutes discussion on important topics to consider regarding digital transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: most recent review of top technologies for web specialists. Always good reference to check out first.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital often means skills shortage. When looking for work or a place to establish a startup, this list may help.

WHY IT MATTERS: this webinar on IOT business models describes a framework to help organizations craft their IOT strategy. A training class on the framework is offered by IOT Canada in Montreal in December here: www.iotcanada.io/business-model-training 

WHY IT MATTERS: banks are notorious for their lack of agility and fear of change, making digital transformation a challenge. Here ING move to the concept of agile tribes is explained.

WHY IT MATTERS: banks are notorious for their lack of agility and fear of change, making digital transformation a challenge. Here ING move to the concept of agile tribes is explained.

WHY IT MATTERS: this new solution from takeoff in the US proposes to build a series of automated windowless hyper-local micro-warehouses that automatically prepare grocery orders that you can pick up quickly in your car. Listen to the video for more.

WHY IT MATTERS: warehouse automation is a major component of retail ecommerce digital transformation. As more orders go online, the speed and cost of order preparation must be reduced. Amazon has invested heavily in the field buying KIVA robots in 2014. Now other retailers, especially in the grocery field, are also moving from manual picking to automation because they have the volume. In fact, this may be a sign of the future: grocery retailers may become leaders in the digital transformation, moving away from their current position as dead last.

WHY IT MATTERS: I read and research this topic *a lot* and find this summary is capturing some of the key issues retailers face today in their digital transformation. Must read.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a great reference when you are considering a software development technology and would like to know where it places with experts in terms of adoption maturity.

WHY IT MATTERS: technology moves fast and the tech radar is a great reference for technology practitioners. Not for the faith at heart because it is full of acronyms and product names.

WHY IT MATTERS: retail is being disrupted and nobody knows what to do, what works and what doesn't. Here's a run down of 9 trends to help you sort it out.

WHY IT MATTERS: it is a great summary of the key success criteria and pitfalls of innovation in large organizations. Must read for any startup or executive in large organization.

WHY IT MATTERS: everything is connected even pillow cushions like this one targeted at the elderlies. Looks like a simple solution to a real need.

WHY IT MATTERS: connected objects will include all kind of things - here glasses - that will transform daily lives. The device includes a fall detection module that triggers when the wearer falls and triggers an alert to inform emergency services. 4 month battery life and integration of prescription glasses

WHY IT MATTERS: this report presents useful framework and use cases for IOT in retail. Moreover it highlights the importance of communications networks in the deployment and operations of IOT solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: internet connected objects will impact the retail industry and make possible the new shopping experience that has been put forward by marketers and innovative store owners. Here the report proposes a framework to consider when preparing an IOT strategy.

WHY IT MATTERS: internet connected objects will impact the retail industry and make possible the new shopping experience that has been put forward by marketers and innovative store owners. Here the article discusses smart shelves, beacons, display signage and robot technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: food distribution and food service is being disrupted by new concepts such as prepared meals (ie. missFresh with Metro), UBEReats and now deliveroo super kitchen. It addresses one of the biggest issue in eCommerce today: delivery. By rethinking the process of preparing meals around the customer needs (here eat at home) and taking advantage of digital technologies it is possible to transform the process to personalize the experience while keeping costs to a minimum.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the best use case for AI as it solves a real problem (long lines at the cash register when you are hungry to eat!).

WHY IT MATTERS: use this overly simplistic flowchart then look at your internal process and determine where you should use AI. Do you have someone look at products all day long to determine faulty products? If yes, use AI. Do you have people move things around a kn own environment? If yes, use AI. Because if you don't and your competitor does, then you'll be at a disadvantage...

WHY IT MATTERS: robots in industrial environments are going to start to move from the large volume floors to more mundane and more complex and unpredictable tasks. This one is very much a prototype but one would expect this to become reality in the coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is quite useful framework to help guide the strategic planning process and measure its progress.

WHY IT MATTERS: This leader and pioneer explains how retailers can leverage AI to make their designers and sales teams better at their job.

WHY IT MATTERS: this short article is very clear: retailers are changing the "function" of their stores from inventory display to service + experience. This is made possible by large investments in technology to enable mobility in store (wifi, tablet to employees, software for employees) and links to backoffice and online systems (ERP for inventory and order management, eCommerce for online availability, same-day shipping). Of course this means huge investments that have traditionally not been made as they were considered "not useful" because not necessary in the legacy operating model.

WHY IT MATTERS: the technology that 2 years ago was since fiction is now becoming more common grounds. See http://fmcs.digital/?s=amazon+go for other retailers and solutions that will provide a similar solution than Amazon GO.

WHY IT MATTERS: the security industry will be transformed with digital technologies, sensors, big data, drones, AI and other disruptive technologies. Start the video around 1:20:00 in the section #3

WHY IT MATTERS: the blockchain is showing promise for product traceability and this simple example from IBM shows how it is used.

WHY IT MATTERS: this videos shows the inside of the new Ocado warehouse in UK. This warehouse is making its way top Canada, with Sobeys opening one soon: http://fmcs.digital/blog/u-k-s-ocado-taps-into-canadas-online-grocery-market-with-sobeys-tie-up-is-canada-mature-enough-to-have-automated-grocery-fulfillment-centers-ecommerce-robots/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: design thinking is an essential skill to have when planning digital transformation. Us techno geek have been used to doing this for so long because of the prevalence of agile methodology in our world. Seems that it is not so in other functions of the organization. 

As the API or "application programming interface" becomes the primary interface for business (in much the same way physical storefronts gave way to applications and websites), we're seeing a new chapter in the story of software emerge. While it's playing out against the backdrop of other trends (microservices, software-defined networking, developers as buyers, and connectivity as a utility), the big idea here is that traditional, large programs are being broken down into and being offered as -- or with data exposed to -- services. But more importantly, these pieces and services are being recombined by other companies to create something new... it’s combinatorial innovation in action. In this talk (originally delivered at our most recent annual a16z Summit in November 2017), general partner Martin Casado describes the evolution of "the API economy" in the context of the history of computing; shares examples of companies whose entire business is based on or around APIs; considers implications for future infrastructure, IT business leaders, and others; and shares how APIs are already fueling the expansion of software eating the world.

WHY IT MATTERS: a short video from well-know investors that explain the importance of APIs and the opportunities it provides.

WHY IT MATTERS: the report provides lots of insights into the use and growth of robots in the workplace and soon the home...

WHY IT MATTERS: the report provides lots of insights into the use and growth of robots in the workplace and soon the home...

WHY IT MATTERS: the article presents possible use cases for AI in grocery Big Data analysis. 

WHY IT MATTERS: omni channel is an important consideration to include in any technology strategy because customers expect to move across digital channels without effort.

WHY IT MATTERS: omni channel is an important consideration to include in any technology strategy because customers expect to move across digital channels without effort.

WHY IT MATTERS: Internet of Things has the potential to impact all industries, most importantly retail and manufacturing.

WHY IT MATTERS: another point of view from an ecommerce pure play shopify. Interesting tidbits although there are a few commons grounds.

WHY IT MATTERS: augmented reality has not yet exploded - this company provides relatively simple AR solutions for the retail and beauty industry.

WHY IT MATTERS: I reported in 2015 that Netflix + YouTube accounted for 55% of web traffic. Their share is down only because the other streaming video services are growing. Also interesting from this chart that HTTP (good old web browsing), now only accounts for less than 10%. This means video is the medium of choice, cable TV is on it's way out (so expect more growth) and 5G mobile coverage will be in high demand when it becomes available soon...

2015 reference is here: http://fmcs.digital/blog/netflix-youtube-55-of-internet-traffic/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: some of the use cases may be far fetched but still give a good idea of what is possible (not necessarily what is useful...). Good to know nevertheless.

WHY IT MATTERS: learning from what best in class companies do is always good thing. This award from chiefmartech surfaces the best marketing technology "Stacks" - the list of technologies and solutions that marketing team at Cisco, IBM and others use to do their work - provides insights into the tools that companies leverage to do their work. And with over 6500 solutions in the marketing horizon, finding the "right" set of tools is so difficult that mapping yourself to what others are doing may be a good starting point!

WHY IT MATTERS: store of the future will focus on customer experience and technologies such as IOT are key enablers to make the enhanced experience seamless and complete. This research document classifies applications for IOT into 3 categories, track, intuit behaviour and deliver experience. I find this classification and the examples in the document very useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: anything that helps me make sense of the fast moving world of digital marketing is always a good thing. I refer to it here as a snapshot of 2016, wishing that a 2018 version was available...

WHY IT MATTERS: makes for great weekend read!

WHY IT MATTERS: as the article states, technology sometimes exists but most don'T feel this is an important issue - until it is too late or catastrophic event occurs. We can extrapolate this concern to pretty much everything regarding cybersecurity these days...

WHY IT MATTERS: creating great customer experiences seems to be the next big thing in digital transformation of retail stores. This survey from PWC provides insights into expectations and benefits of providing great experiences.

WHY IT MATTERS: creating great customer experiences seems to be the next big thing in digital transformation of retail stores. This survey from PWC provides insights into expectations and benefits of providing great experiences.

WHY IT MATTERS: creating great customer experiences seems to be the next big thing in digital transformation of retail stores. This survey from PWC provides insights into expectations and benefits of providing great experiences.

WHY IT MATTERS: creating great customer experiences seems to be the next big thing in digital transformation of retail stores. This survey from PWC provides insights into expectations and benefits of providing great experiences.

WHY IT MATTERS: the marketing technology landscape is often confusing and this webinar presents a very good overview of the market and provides key insights to understand the macroscopic trends.

WHY IT MATTERS: this device morphs a new transportation device - the segway - with AI and sensors to deliver a surveillance device that may provide a new type of remote operated, semi-autonomous surveillance system. I can see applications gated communities, very large facilities, etc. Plus the video is quite futuristic! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhD9q7stHfY

WHY IT MATTERS: holiday season starts with black friday / cyber monday. Companies need to prepare to get their logistics and delivery ready. Some useful insights in this shameless plug from Canada Post...!

WHY IT MATTERS: a technical description of the technology required to make shelf scanning robots of startup Qopius a reality. Fascinating.

WHY IT MATTERS: expect to see more robots in supermarkets in the near future - especially if you are in China 7fresh new high-tech supermarket. See a short description of the store here.

WHY IT MATTERS: to make digital transformation a reality we required to blend the digital and the real world. In particular it is essential to have high definition maps of the real world and this paper explains why this is important, and why they have made their model opensource for everyone to see and use.

WHY IT MATTERS: when Walmart gets into something, you should watch out. Here it seems they are exploring options for grocery fulfillment and delivery - as everyone is trying to figure out what will customer prefer and where to make money. But the solution feels like back to the future: the concept looks like a sears pickup counter from the old days! The article also mentions some delivery options being tested by Walmart including autonomous cars and crowdsourcing.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation in enterprise remains slow to catch on and this survey result shows that Intranet solutions remain under utilized. Having seen many of them, I can understand why: lots of useless, and out of date documents, no one really in charge of maintenance, no search or bad search engines, etc. Key learning from this chart:

- if you update your intranet, build something simple and make sure people use it

- have a corporate social network, it is useful and people use it

WHY IT MATTERS: this new service will help you determine if your account has been hacked and watch for it. This is a new twist on a service I discussed before http://fmcs.digital/?s=pwned but that remains more valuable than ever today.

WHY IT MATTERS: say what you will, technology is often the driver of change. Always good to keep track of what's out there and what's possible because who knows, one of these may be useful... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: I tried this electric powered trailer at CES 2018 and it is truly amazing. Is this the missing piece in the delivery logistics nightmare of urban areas? Not sure but certainly fills a missing piece of the puzzle.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to keep an eye on the horizon, and in this case over the horizon.

WHY IT MATTERS: personalization is a key trend in digital transformation. This list provides a good insight into who the leaders are providing great insights into the things we must do to personalize web, email, mobile, etc. customer experience

WHY IT MATTERS: too many buzzwords, too many concepts are increasing the confusion of retailers and merchants. This year at the Paris Retail Week it was "smart phygital" a concept that means nothing more than the fact that eCommerce is morphing into retail commerce, driving changes in stores to go from mini-warehouses to an experience destinations where consumers will get product showrooms, advice and support. And all of that supported by digital technology and requiring huge digital transformation of processes and people.

WHY IT MATTERS: being able to control devices without your hand - using eyes or voice - is still being explored. I find this a great example of merging new technologies - drone, eye gazing, AI - to expand digital transformation beyond the current scope envisioned today.

WHY IT MATTERS: every one of these trends seems to be supported by specific technologies - and these tech are not yet fully deployed at retailers today, leading to many that struggle to stay relevant IMHO.

WHY IT MATTERS: workflow automation is an essential tool that too few organizations leverage within their digital transformation. Unfortunate because it can provide some very tangible benefits along with cost and error reduction. This paper provides a simple use case - employee onboarding - which unfortunately too many organizations still do manually.

WHY IT MATTERS: big data and AI can extract the information from social networks - this is a perfect example of the use of such tools to analyze the sentiments towards politicians during debates in Quebec province.

WHY IT MATTERS: from the recent Paris Retail Week, I have been infused with the mantra that store experience is the wave of the future. An it makes perfect sense - look at the 3 areas in an Apple store: showroom, service and support. Key element behind all of this is a good dose of technology. But here again the trend is to hide the technology (think Amazon GO) instead of putting it at the forefront (Walmart retiring their self scanning apps). More in this article.

WHY IT MATTERS: machine learning is based on mathematics and computer science. Here are cheat sheets to help guide students - but in reality they are good for everybody. Also look on github for translations in multiple languages...

WHY IT MATTERS: RSG always has good insights into product reviews and usually provide a more technical, less marketing, view of solutions. With CDP becoming a must have in the toolkit of marketing teams, this review is very timely.

WHY IT MATTERS: this library of papers and technical documents on CDPs will provide a starting point if you want to know more on the matter.

Head over to CDP institute for more: www.cdpinstitute.org 

WHY IT MATTERS: this very good paper explains in simple terms how hackers impersonate friends and colleagues in emails with tremendous success rates. Be aware!

WHY IT MATTERS: it is true that analysis of marketing data is difficult and often requires advanced technical skills to string together the tools required to make sense of data. Interesting diagrams and explanations here.

WHY IT MATTERS: real-time analysis of sporting events to provide insights into players and teams is big business where digital transformation will have a profound impact if this recent research is to be believed...

WHY IT MATTERS: not only do you need digital expertise but you need the right mindset. This article presents 6 essential traits that digital teams must have.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital requires skills and expertise that are very specific and often benefit from being organized in a center of excellence. This post presents some of those roles.

WHY IT MATTERS: FMI and Nielsen provide data to suggest that food grocery shopping online may reach disruption levels in 5-7 years. It is important because online grocery may be the last frontier of digital transformation. What we started in 1996 is finally showing signs of strong growth. We're almost there!

WHY IT MATTERS: delivery models are plenty and need to be expanded to reduce the cost of eCommerce deliveries.

WHY IT MATTERS: large organizations are not structured to deliver on the innovation that digital transformations required. Partnering with startups is thus the way to go.

WHY IT MATTERS: delivery is the last problem to solve to continue ecommerce growth. McKinsey explores the different delivery models for the last mile in this article.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canadian CEOs are optimistic in this KPMG survey - with digital as key to success.

WHY IT MATTERS: good to compare France and US online grocery retail to show how much behind we are in north America...

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to know that store retail remains the largest solution by far in all categories but that growth at 15% or 25% means ecommerce doubles every 4-5 years.

WHY IT MATTERS: when you create a digital center of competence (which McKinsey suggests and I agree in most organizations), then you must equip it with a budget (seems obvious but rarely is) and give it a goal to DELIVER (not just strategize or think, which is often the case). This is the only way you can have the DCOC be owner of its future and the transformation that comes with it.

WHY IT MATTERS: manufacturing industry has labelled digital transformation efforts as "industry 4.0" and governments such as Quebec are providing guidance to small and medium businesses on how to do it. Well worth the read.

A direct link to the framework is here (in french): Feuille de route industrie 4.0

WHY IT MATTERS: companies have been building website for close to years now and this post reminds us all that most still do not leverage the full power of analytics, personalization and other high end features of web platforms. Basically companies continue to create informational websites with little or no data analysis and gathering. My experience confirms this is mostly true. Sad.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation governance remains tricky enough to require a center of excellence in certain cases. This tracks with previous post from Bain here: http://fmcs.digital/blog/organizing-for-a-digital-world-bain-brief-bain-company/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation success is not about technology. I agree.

WHY IT MATTERS: I recommend reading this book (not listening to audible because too many concepts/tables). It does lay out a convincing path towards autonomous AI that goes through a period of merging humans *with* AI. Worth reading and referring to during strategy sessions.

WHY IT MATTERS: use this diagram as a guide to determine where and how to combine humans with AI.

WHY IT MATTERS: we tend to think AI as replacing humans. Studies are starting to show that in the short term, best bet is to combine humans with AI.

WHY IT MATTERS: finance and accounting remain manual and paper-driven. However, there are advances with robotic process automation and solutions that aim to make accounting a continuous process, not a once a month struggle. Sure looks to me like something we have done in software engineering years ago with continuous integration and deployment.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article reviews of the 6 companies are changing the in store experience to deliver true omni-channel.

WHY IT MATTERS: with over 2600 use cases for blockchain in every possible category, this is the best reference I found to show people why the blockchain is a good thing with HUGE potential. Great job by the upfolio team!

WHY IT MATTERS: this has little to do with digital transformation but.... to transform we often need to convince others that change is good. This blog post provides tons of examples of good presentation styles, the importance of storytelling, summary of the Minto pyramid principle, and so many more infos and very well thought out videos. THANK YOU FOR THIS.

WHY IT MATTERS: few marketing units measure the success of their advertising campaigns. This article describes what it takes to do so.

WHY IT MATTERS: I see it in most organizations: marketing team is overwhelmed with data but very few manage to provide simple reporting to show how good (or bad) their efforts are. It should in fact be simple to produce the table highlighted here but it is not. 

WHY IT MATTERS: trust on the Internet is difficult to get. Harvard Business Review raises concerns and provides possible solutions in this special series. Much needed, the solutions do not however appear very easy to implement. Tough times ahead for the truth...

WHY IT MATTERS: this german institute reports on omni-channel support in retail which visually shows that few retailers embrace omni-channel fully at this time. Would be interesting to see the same elsewhere to compare.

WHY IT MATTERS: 2 factor authentication is great, especially when using a physical device like a secure key it seems. read the article for details on why this is so and how to use it.

WHY IT MATTERS: the list provides a great starting point to get a shot of digital transformation leadership. The focus being mostly on technology, you should look elsewhere for impact on society, work, and life that digital transformation brings.

WHY IT MATTERS: I've been blogging about digital disruption since Jan 2013, and doing it since the early days of Internet in 1995. It is refreshing to see it being picked up by non technology professionals. Maybe a sign of the times that this thing is starting to really impact people, businesses and whole industries...?

Companies need to increase revenues, lower costs, and delight customers. Doing that requires reinventing the operating model. A simple way to visualize this operating model is to think of it as having two parts, each requiring companies to adopt major changes in the way they work:

  • The first part involves a shift from running uncoordinated efforts within siloes to launching an integrated operational-improvement program organized around customer journeys (the set of interactions a customer has with a company when making a purchase or receiving services) as well as the internal journeys (end-to-end processes inside the company). Examples of customer journeys include a homeowner filing an insurance claim, a cable-TV subscriber signing up for a premium channel, or a shopper looking to buy a gift online. Examples of internal-process journeys include Order-to-Cash or Record-to-Report.
  • The second part is a shift from using individual technologies, operations capabilities, and approaches in a piecemeal manner inside siloes to applying them to journeys in combination and in the right sequence to achieve compound impact.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation often requires profound changes to operating models. McKinsey proposes a simple way to derive a target digital operating model by looking at key scenarios that need to be supported with digital. This is especially true when considering new technologies such as 3D printing which not only introduce new capabilities but also have ripple effects into every function in the organization.

WHY IT MATTERS: this Harvard paper shows that recent advances in 3D printing make additive production a reality today. Reading between the lines you have to realize the digital transformation this requires across your sales and distribution channels to support the level of customization that 3D printing enables. It is not just a matter or replacing machines with printers on the factory floor.

WHY IT MATTERS: the issues raised in this article I see with every corporation I work with. They want agility and flexibility but executives don't let go of out-dated corporate structures and governance. Ultimately, they end up blaming employees and partners when they fail to deliver in a competitive way. Every executive I meet from this point forward will receive a copy of this article!

The digital commerce platform market continues to grow steadily. Gartner forecasts digital commerce platform revenue to reach CAGR of 15.5% through 2022. The Gartner digital commerce team has seen continued growth in the number of digital commerce platform inquiries.
We recently conducted a Gartner Research Circle survey composed of members whose organizations use digital commerce platforms (see the Evidence section for details). Organizations in manufacturing and natural resources represented the highest number of participants (26%), followed by retail, services, banking, insurance and government, which collectively represented 43%. The survey revealed the following take-aways:
  • Of participating members, an average of one-quarter of total revenue comes through digital commerce channels.
  • Note: Most participants work in organizations that sell to both B2B and B2C audiences.
  • Improving customer satisfaction, innovation/transformation of the business, and reducing costs via automation of sales processes and customer self-service buying were cited as key reasons for embracing digital commerce.
  • Delivering the desired customer experience was cited as the most critical challenge for digital commerce. Consistency in serving customers across all sales channels and justifying IT spending based on current ROI were also highlighted as key barriers.
  • A majority (63%) considered digital commerce as a critical and natural progression to a digital business strategy.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to use when you need to know where the market is going on eCommerce. Love the analysis. Always take the vendors and their position with a grain of salt.

WHY IT MATTERS: read this very detailed report that explains how political parties have used the Facebook data to create personalized messages and influence the election that led to the Brexit. Fascinating. Also read my posts on the data you leave behind - the data exhaust - that enables the creation of your digital twin: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin 

WHY IT MATTERS: this report from the ICO data privacy organization in the UK explains in their recent report how political parties and companies use your private data to create a digital twin profile to then target you during your Internet journeys with micro-targeted messages. Also read my post on the digital twin concept: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin 

WHY IT MATTERS: data that you post on Facebook or elsewhere is aggregated by political parties and retailers and governments and others to create a virtual profile of yourself - what I call the digital twin. See my post here for more on the digital twin: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: this investigation on the heels of the Cambridge Analytica scandal shows how much data is being collected by political parties.

WHY IT MATTERS: ICO is the data protection organization in the UK. It provides a guide to your rights regarding data and privacy. Very useful and well done.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a mantra that a good friend of mine had for a long time - and he is/was very productive. I struggle every day to be more like him and apply the principles in this article. You should too.

WHY IT MATTERS: you cannot force digital transformation. It needs to be a process of change, something governments - and some businesses - are not great at. Case in point in this article.

WHY IT MATTERS: part of a well researched series of articles, this one looks at the use case of elections using blockchain - and the hope that it will reduce fraud and make the process more transparent.

WHY IT MATTERS: explores how blockchain technology may help protect private data and bring back some privacy.

WHY IT MATTERS: as privacy and trust erodes, this article provides some insight on how to shape the future to bring back trust and value of privacy and personal data.

WHY IT MATTERS: end user applications of AR are few and far between and this just proves that point. Look at the video of a wedding proposal in VR to prove the point even further. However, do not dismiss AR in the business context as I have seen demos of very useful fabrication with augmented reality that are very useful and convincing!

WHY IT MATTERS: this very detailed research from Netflix shows how important it is to keep web pages skinny - and highlights that so few of the 1000 top websites watch this important metric. Imagine the others...

WHY IT MATTERS: it is essential to position your company as a leader or follower regarding regarding any new - and possibly disrupting - technology. This article explains how to determine your strategic position regarding the blockchain technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: if you are an IT consultant or hire consultants, this survey result will interest you.

WHY IT MATTERS: an analysis of 90 use cases shows the feasability of blockchain across key components.

WHY IT MATTERS: blockchain is fundamental for certain record keeping and transactions and this analysis of 90 use cases shows that 70% provide short term cost reduction as the most value.

WHY IT MATTERS: companies often dismiss the blockchain because of bitcoin failures. However this article suggests that there are other use case that should be considered first.

WHY IT MATTERS: blockchain is fundamental for certain record keeping and transactions - this diagram summarizes the key use cases.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article summarizes well the potential of blockchain.

WHY IT MATTERS: an in depth article about the strategic potential of blockchain in every industry.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to keep those guys on our digital transformation strategy radar...

WHY IT MATTERS: I am 53. I had a startup that failed when I was 30. I guess it is time for me to get back on the startup trail? ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: I've been writing about concerns regarding online identity and privacy for a long time with blog posts such as "pyramid of digital needs", "digital twin" and "10 urgents actions to protect your identity". This article from Brian Krebs reminds us all that online identity must be protected and that it requires active actions on our part.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-moi-get-started-10-actions/ 

Afin de mieux connaitre les comportements et opinions des consommateurs québécois dans le secteur du commerce de détail, le GreenUXlab – Laboratoire FCI de recherche en nouvelles expériences utilisateurs et en écoresponsabilité de l’ESG UQAM – et MBA Recherche lancent une étude annuelle. La première édition de ce baromètre, qui constitue un panorama du marché sur l’appropriation de tendances de consommation en commerce de détail, mesure en particulier l’importance accordée, l’utilisation actuelle, l’attitude perçue et l’utilisation future de 10 tendances (et leurs sous-tendances) : digitalisation des points de vente, omnicanal, livraison pour les commandes,réduction de l’attente en caisse, magasin éphémère, économie collaborative, économie de seconde main, achat local, mieux manger, vrac.

WHY IT MATTERS: online shopping penetration is growing and now accounts anywhere from 10% to 50% of sales. However this study shows that consumers have a hard time finding local retailers and local products. I assume this is because the market attention is captured by very large providers - Amazon, Google, EBay, Alibaba, Walmart - leaving the corner retail store with a dilema: how to let shoppers know they exist. This is a problem that needs to be resolved. Or a business opportunity?

WHY IT MATTERS: infusing bikes with technology may provide a solution to traffic, congestions - and the last mile of online ecommerce logistics. I recently saw a French startup (not in this list) that created a electric powered delivery trailer that you can effortlessly drag with a bike, making short-distance city delivery of packages a reality. Lots of potential. http://www.k-ryole.com/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: I often will recommend BOLD moves for digital strategies of my clients: automate entire departments, move everything to the cloud, go mobile-first, go AI-first, etc. It is disappointing to see them take more timid approaches: keep on-premise systems and slowly move to cloud, stay away from ecommerce so as not to deal with logistics issues, build a "store of the future" with a few screens and survey kiosks, etc. 

The analysis of Internet of Things (IoT) data is quickly becoming a mainstream activity. I’ve written about the Analytics of Things (AoT) before (some examples herehere, and here). For this blog, I’m going to focus on a few unique challenges that you’ll most likely encounter as you move to take IoT data into the AoT realm.

WHY IT MATTERS: as I work with colleagues to bring IOT into retail stores, challenges are many including those highlighted here.

WHY IT MATTERS: if you have kids, show them this then encourage them to study!

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a positive news about new technologies. However we must brace ourselves because many people will loose their jobs and not have the skills - or the willingness - to adapt. This will certainly create turmoil in companies - and possible whole countries. Prepare.

WHY IT MATTERS: a reminder that digital transformation is not only about technology...

WHY IT MATTERS: I like those because they bring a bit of realism into trends. Here for example, cloud computing is in acceptance and moves many of the hyped new techs into awareness or dawning. Very useful to establish proper pace in your strategic plan.

WHY IT MATTERS: watch out for AI to revolutionize the retail industry - and many others.

WHY IT MATTERS: chinese eCommerce giants are making sure there is no difference between on-line and in-store, paying to renovate stores with the latest hitech (AI, Big Data) and turning them into loyal customers. The future of retail is being defined in China.

WHY IT MATTERS: many are denying that digital disruption will affect their industry. These 3 factors are a good litmus test to determine if you are at risk.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to stay abreast of the latest buzzword... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: follow the link below to the June 10 story and listen to how a school in Montreal has 6 3dprinters for their students to use and build the best spinning wheel. The potentials are endless: science, art, architecture, etc.. Why don't we do the same in offices ie. equip them with those small devices to let employees try new designs of things they struggle with on a daily basis?

 

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/les-annees-lumiere 

WHY IT MATTERS: everyone asks how they change do digital transformation. For one thing, setting up an independent lab can be a good place to start.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI in marketing holds many promises and case studies like this one may prove useful to determine if AI and chatbots should be part of your digital strategy.

Last month’s story about organizations exposing passwords and other sensitive data via collaborative online spaces at Trello.com only scratched the surface of the problem. A deeper dive suggests a large number of government agencies, marketing firms, healthcare organizations and IT support companies are publishing credentials via public Trello boards that quickly get indexed by the major search engines.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article is a reminder that the use of public software as a service tools may lead to exposure of critical and private corporate data. In the past, locking everything down behind corporate firewall and network meant this was not possible. At the same time, remote work and collaboration with partners around the globe was very difficult. CIOs would like to return to the good old days but users certainly do not want that. Proper governance must be enforced with these new tools and systems.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation often requires new processes, skills and organisation chart. This chart explains what to keep in-house and what to outsource.

WHY IT MATTERS: eCommerce is growing even in fast moving goods (as opposed to categories such as travel or electronics)

WHY IT MATTERS: it is great to see companies create AI using these principles. Most interesting also are the areas that Google plans to avoid. Let's hope all others - including nation states - also will adhere to those principles...

WHY IT MATTERS: every techno geek knows GitHub and appreciates it. This article explains it for the rest of us (you actually ;-)...

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation allows companies to mature in their use of digital in the organization. This MIT research survey provides an interactive tool to compare yourself against others in your industry.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation allows companies to mature in their use of digital in the organization. This MIT research survey shows that "digital" companies are very different than traditional ones.

WHY IT MATTERS: I am a very visual person - those are just great ways to visualize things we know.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation allows companies to mature in their use of digital in the organization. This MIT research survey shows that "digital" companies embrace experimentation at all levels in the organization.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation allows companies to mature in their use of digital in the organization. This MIT research survey shows that it is not a question of technology and that executives and leaders must transform as well.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation allows companies to mature in their use of digital in the organization. This MIT research survey shows that the speed of transformation is increasing, leaving laggards behind.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great article that shows how to use business architecture methodology and deliverables to support business innovation and digital transformation.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital identification is at the base of the digital pyramid of needs. This white papers details the requirements for a national digital identification system that includes proper government regulations. FINALLY!

For more on the digital pyramid of needs: http://fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the annual presentation to level-set everyone on the Internet, mobile, ecommerce, cybersecurity, epayment, personalization, etc. She covers everything and shows that digital transformation is in full swing. Just WOW. Again.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril. The speed, breadth and depth of this revolution is forcing us to rethink how countries develop, how organisations create value and even what it means to be human. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about more than just technology-driven change; it is an opportunity to help everyone, including leaders, policy-makers and people from all income groups and nations, to harness converging technologies in order to create an inclusive, human-centred future. The real opportunity is to look beyond technology, and find ways to give the greatest number of people the ability to positively impact their families, organisations and communities.

WHY IT MATTERS: the world economic forum provides a trove of useful data and analysis on topics related to the 4th industrial revolution. It provides useful insight into key digital technologies related to that topics as well.

Think of the trends we’ve seen emerge in recent years:

  • Sensors and actuators, including implantables and wearables, that let us capture more data and impressions from more objects in more places, and that affect the environment around them.
  • Ubiquitous computing and hyperconnectivity, which exponentially increase the flow of data between people and devices and among devices themselves.
  • Nanotechnology and nanomaterials, which let us build ever more complex devices at microscopic scale.
  • Artificial intelligence, in which algorithms become increasingly capable of making decisions based on past performance and desired results.
  • Vision as an interface to participate in and control augmented and virtual reality
  • Blockchain technology, which makes all kinds of digital transactions secure, verifiable, and potentially automatic.

WHY IT MATTERS: the number of devices connected to the Internet will dwarf anything else we've seen since the early web  and usher an era of machine-to-machine and AI infused solutions, further bridging the real-world and the digital world.

WHY IT MATTERS: cloud computing Gartner quadrant analyzed to show that Seattle region is home to the industry leaders.

WHY IT MATTERS: there are only 3 players in cloud computing market: Google, Amazon, microsoft. Sorry IBM & Oracle just don't make the cut. Here is a great analysis of why this is so.

WHY IT MATTERS: this analysis of 90M patents highlights the most important applications of Internet Of Things.

WHY IT MATTERS: much has been written about the potential for the future of digital technologies. Here is a great list for those looking to get started.

The annual study conducted by NRF and Forrester examines key digital commerce issues. 

 

Key findings from this year’s report include:

  • Net-net, stores are growing: More surveyed retailers say they will be opening stores in 2018 versus closing them. This outlook contrasts with claims that the physical retail world is being displaced by ecommerce and is therefore doomed.
  • Omnichannel remains a key store investment area: Efforts like in-store pickup and endless-aisle investments have been a recurring theme for digital retailers for years, and continue in 2018 as retailers recognize these initiatives are often multiyear endeavors.
  • Digital retail continues to be the bright spot it’s been for years: Retailers continue to experience success in their ecommerce businesses, which have been buoyed by strong mobile commerce performance and improvements in key metrics like conversion rates.

WHY IT MATTERS: the number of retail store is growing - so why are we talking of retail armageddon? This research provides some insight, as does this newsletter from Axios: the armageddon may be for shopping malls - with only 300 of the existing malls to survive in a few years...

https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-future-ca246c67-295d-411e-8802-e41f11e11512.html 

WHY IT MATTERS: the article is a great review of the reasons why Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods is essential and why grocery eCommerce is the final frontier for the online retailer. Very good recap fo the state of eCommerce today, and its remaining challenges and opportunities.

WHY IT MATTERS: this webinar provides a very good explanation of different sensors that can be deployed in store, with descriptions of PROS and CONS for each one. Obviously it is specific to the products from RetailNext that provide a sensor-fusion device.

The webinar is available here directly: https://retailnext.net/en/webinar/state-of-the-art-in-store-sensor-technologies-ensuring-technology-works-for-you/?watch=6044&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkRGaVptVmlNMlprT0dReiIsInQiOiJYMVhlR1Q0bUFYSDBhMDhFVkdFTEptK0JiRk1qTXNtXC94bWdOblZ4eWJjdHVuVkpUZDNBWnpzSUREdDA0OTN1MGpjcW9pSkh5d0FQVFAxQnh0SHdablBFUEt3VDArUDRlNGhMS0ZqbVwveFQ3TW9LdnJcL1Ezblo1TXd4aVpKQkc5eiJ9 

WHY IT MATTERS: the article offers target improvement metrics for using big data and advanced analytics. Moreover it identifies the different elements required to reach the full potential of data usage within organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: my digital transformation framework includes such an opportunity matrix to help executives explore what is possible to do with digital technologies. This list can thus be a useful starting point for such exploration.

Toronto Transit Explorer uses public data feeds from 13 transit agencies throughout the Greater Toronto Area to determine travel times, service schedules, and wheelchair accessibility. It pulls data from Toronto’s Open Data Catalogue to generate bike-share trips, provides the option to combine bike-share and transit trips, and calculates personal bike rides depending on your choice of speed (from 10 to 30 kilometers per hour).

WHY IT MATTERS: big data and open data provide insights to discover hidden trends and solutions, here in the context of city transportation.

WHY IT MATTERS: a number of useful things to know and do...

Essentially, they identified eight ways people look at it:

  1. Employee productivity. For 52 percent of executives, "becoming a digital business means enabling worker productivity through tools such as mobile, data access and AI-assisted processes."
  2. Data-driven business performance. Close to half, 49 percent, also see digital transformation as "the ability to better manage business performance through data availability and visibility."
  3. Customer experience. "For 46 percent of decision-makers, digital transformation "means meeting customer experience expectations, while 44 percent see it as "understanding customer needs through data collection and analysis."
  4. Mobile capabilities. Another 46 percent see digital transformation as "providing secure, optimized anywhere/anytime access to assets."
  5. Process automaton. At least 37 percent say digital transformation means "digitally modifying business and/or processes ."
  6. Revenue streams. One-third, 33 percent, say digital transformation means developing new digital business/revenue streams.
  7. Product innovation. Another 31 percent see digital transformation as achieving top-line growth through digital product enhancements/new digital products or services.
  8. Supply chain optimization. For more than a quarter of companies surveyed (27 percent), digital transformation means digitizing "the flow of data and information worldwide which enables the movement of goods, services, finance and people."

MATTERS: digital transformation unfortunately has a different meaning for different people. Use the survey results to rapidly determine with your stakeholders what they expect in their specific context.

Building on the expanded definition of the term “digital”, we introduce in figure 5 the Digital Transformation Framework (DTF), a frame of reference to guide digital transformations. At a high level, the (DTF) has one foundation layer and three pillars.

Starting from the bottom, the framework has its base rooted in cybersecurity, a critical dimension, given the degree to which the digital world and its underlying economy is consistently under attack. Moving to the top left corner of Figure 5, the first pillar of the frame of reference is defined. It is labeled “Digital theme”, and proposes six key categories to logically organize the levers that organizations can pull to become digital. The second pillar, labeled “Customer Orientation”, suggests that clients, whether internal or externally facing an enterprise, are at the heart of any digital transformation. Finally, the last pillar, labeled “Competency Level”, indicates the level of excellence and efficiency an organization would like to achieve, for a given digital theme, as a possible way to distinguish itself from its competitors. The Competency Level pillar offers three possible distinct values: “Competitive”, “Industry” and “Minimum”, as shown in the diagram below.

WHY IT MATTERS: we are starting to see frameworks and approaches to manage the digital transformation. This is one of them but beware, as most things with Enterprise Architecture related, it can rapidly become confusing as it tries to generalize. Nevertheless, it does suggest interesting ways to address the digital transformation.

WHY IT MATTERS: if you have a twitter account, change your password now. And at the same time review all the apps you have granted access to in twitter and revoke all the access except for those you absolutely need. Just in case...

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is moving at the speed of light it seems and this short post with accompanying full report is a must read to stay in touch with the state of AI in Canada.

See full report here: http://www.jfgagne.ai/canadian-ai-ecosystem-2018-en 

WHY IT MATTERS: real-life applications of blockchain for traceability in the retail industry are starting to appear. With a global push towards fair-trade and local sourcing of products, we can expect solutions like this to be part pf every product tag in the future.

WHY IT MATTERS: many retailers say "AI is not for us, all we have to do is offer great customer service in store and all will be good". This study shows that the impact of AI and analytics will be material for those that adopt it. And may mark the beginning of the end for those that do not embrace this digital transformation.

WHY IT MATTERS: marketing departments are often first to embrace digital transformation. Because of that they are more mature than others towards the use of solutions that are specific for digital processes. Case in point: content management. The proliferation of social media platforms, blogs, websites, and other have created a nightmare for marketing resources when it comes time to create, manage, publics and measure the success of their content they publish. Solutions have appeared to help reduce that burden.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation is such a hot topic today because it impacts every business function, from design to production to customer service. This article presents a very good example of such impact: car paint has to adapt (transform) to support the needs of digital technology. Maybe a future automobile selling point will become: "Buy this extra 750$ car paint so that you can be safer on the road, maximize visibility from other drivers, robots and self-driving cars!" Who knows...

WHY IT MATTERS: reading about AI these days feels like everybody should be doing it because it is so easy. First, it is not. Second you need lots of data. Third, debugging is a pain. Reading this papers feels just like what we had to fight with in the early days on mainframe computers with punch cards and batch processing. Actually, this may be a good parallel to draw. Moreover, Element.ai estimates that there are only about 10000 people with the right AI skills in the world. Still very early - be warned!

WHY IT MATTERS: a collection of articles on digital transformation by CIOs. Their insight is interesting because they have been at the forefront of the transformation from day one and have to have a cross-functional view of the organization, making their insights even more global and wide-ranging.

WHY IT MATTERS: we've seen with recent Facebook meltdown how social media can become a free for all. This 15min video tries to explain what instagram is doing to prevent some of the most annoying elements of un controlled networks: trolls.

WHY IT MATTERS: I've been reporting on this since 2013 and thought useful to share that Google waymo is now actively self-driving cars in the Phoenix area. Today. Wow. Just follow the links to see what it feels like to ride a self-driving car in 360 degrees.

WHY IT MATTERS: hearing so many people asking what is blockchain, I thought to share this to show that 1) it requires many new concepts and fundamentals 2) it can be done if you have the right mindset!

WHY IT MATTERS: it is amazing how much foresight there is in this 2013 presentation - it may explain Trump's election but what does it mean for the near future if we do not have a more social oriented society.

WHY IT MATTERS: another great article on what the store of the future may look like.

WHY IT MATTERS: retail store are here to stay but they will transform - here is a glimpse into what may be around the corner.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a concrete example of a use case for blockchain that shows it is now possible to trace the products from source to consumer. Blockchain technology provides a "distributed" system that can be "trusted". Why is this important? recently the US FDA has recalled 207M eggs due to salmonella: with proper traceability this number could have been much much lower: https://qz.com/1252939/egg-salmonella-recall-how-to-tell-if-a-specific-carton-is-affected/ 

That is why Starbucks is also considering similar technologies as explained here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bringing-blockchain-to-the-coffee-cup-1523797205 

 

For more on the technology, see the video and explanation here: https://www.boulderai.com/ai-vision-systems-integration/ 

 

WHY IT MATTERS: this is everything the Google assistant can do, from football facts to mathematics answers. It is a lot - but again so much remains.

WHY IT MATTERS: data is core to AI and these dataset show how much is available out there - but also how much more we need to have to create AI that is truly powerful.

WHY IT MATTERS: sometimes being more efficient is what digital transformation is all about!

WHY IT MATTERS: this detailed report on cyber security trends shows an alarming statistic: it takes almost 100 days to detect an intrusion into computer systems. Why is that, given that data security and privacy are so important? Not enough resources? Lack of trained personnel? Hackers too good? Read to find out.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation is really easy when you think about it.

*** at the peak of expectations are AI, blockchain, Internet of Things - be realistic and explore

*** in the through of disillusionment are marketing automation, eCommerce, mobile apps, website, etc. - put the pedal to the metal and do those things because they have been proven to work.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find these elements of value to be a very useful tool when crafting digital strategies in B2C organizations. See the full paper in HBR here.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find the B2B elements of value to be a very useful tool when crafting digital strategies in B2B organizations. See the full paper in HBR here.

WHY IT MATTERS: this short post shows how traditional retailers - here grocery stores - are faced with profound transformations due to the arrival of digital technologies. From the increase in # of touchpoints (20+) to new ways of shopping and new business models, traditional retailers must adapt. The catch is that this adaptation is difficult because of pre-existing processes, systems, facilities, assets, and sometimes people.

WHY IT MATTERS: I introduced the concept of a "digital twin" in a recent blog post and this article describes how Facebook uses what you do online to create part of this digital twin profile you may not be ware of.

Also read the digital twin post: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: traditional retailers and shopping malls are facing store closures as the eCommerce traffic continues to grow in popularity. This first part of a series provides some very useful insights and facts about what many are calling the retail apocalypse.

WHY IT MATTERS: this well researched article with many links will provide hours of content to help you understand the Facebook breach. The data may surprise you both by the high accuracy that some predictive models have, and by the relatively low accuracy of other elements.

WHY IT MATTERS: very interesting future projection regarding logistics and parcel delivery in the future by a world leader in the field - DHL.

WHY IT MATTERS: a very interesting and fun way to apply AI to common tasks.

WHY IT MATTERS: given how AI is crucial for the future of *everything* - from warfare to food production - it is essential that every state in the world invest in developing and adapting AI in every field, as China has been doing lately.

WHY IT MATTERS: GE's digital transformation is well documented and has not been easy - nor is it clear if it has been successful. This paper is the story a told by GE CEO. It shows how daunting a task it is to do a digital transformation in a large organization - and why so many fail (think Sears, Blockbusters, etc.)

WHY IT MATTERS: malware and viruses are everywhere but it looks like this one was particularly well crafted. Goes to show that state of malware has become very advanced. Protection becomes essential.

WHY IT MATTERS: 3D printing has moved to become more than just for prototyping.

WHY IT MATTERS: article that explains why and how the blockchain technology will be used to facilitate border crossing in Canada. Yé!

WHY IT MATTERS: when things are always connected to the Internet, our lives change. Here are 9 scenarios where IOT will provide benefits.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to remind ourselves that IOT means more than connecting devices to the Internet: it opens up and new way of thinking where everything we use is part of a digital ecosystem.

WHY IT MATTERS: doesn't matter but interesting nevertheless...

WHY IT MATTERS: bitcoin fraud, price volatility and other hacks have given bad press to the blockchain - the technology behind the bitcoin - when in fact it is the real revolution. Here is a very good use case for this new technology: using blockchain to send personal, private, confidential health information in a secure and protected way for the good of man kind.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI sometimes has very mundane applications - this is just one example.

WHY IT MATTERS: inspiration from our human brains does provides good starting point for new technologies, and this is one stricking example. From now on, every time you answer a CAPTCHA you will have to wonder if it is really a useful way to prevent machines from accessing systems, given that this new tool does as good a job as a human at guessing what the twisted series of letter are...

WHY IT MATTERS: good introduction to a technology that will impact all our lives in the very near future.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI impact on our society will need to be regulated - the same way we have done for telecommunications, automobiles or nuclear armament. This paper presents some very interesting aspects to consider.

WHY IT MATTERS: we think of autonomous vehicles as self-driving cars. But we are more likely to see business and professional applications such as this self-driving cargo ship appear first.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI will most likely augment our capabilities before replacing us altogether. This paper explores what it may mean to have a specialized assistant next to you for your professional tasks and activities..

WHY IT MATTERS: facial recognition + social networks allow tools like this one to surface: take a picture of someone on the train and find their personal pictures on social networks. For now, only Russia and China allow this, I would expect this to be a business killer app for augmented reality glasses: the glass continuously takes pictures and overlays the LinkedIn profile of people you meet in business context. I would install that without thinking about it twice!

WHY IT MATTERS: it is possible to induce AI to hallucinate - see things that are not there in the real world. This article provides insights into what it may mean when cars start to hallucinate and see "stop" signs as if they meant "speed up"...

WHY IT MATTERS: understanding the brain will help build better AI, as was done by Ray Kurweil and others. It has been proven that it is possible to let AI systems hallucinate - ie. see things that are not there - yielding further insight into power and limitations of our brain...

WHY IT MATTERS: we think of robots as solutions for manufacturing problems but the real disruption will come from devices such as this one that "attack" problems outside the factory (pun intended ;-).

WHY IT MATTERS: always a great reference when looking for solutions to web and marketing automation problems, the RSG provides here valuable information regarding Digital Asset Management tools.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation is difficult at best and never a silver bullet. This important article reminds us all of the failed attempts and the reasons why they failed. Focussed investments with clear goals appear to be the best guides for executives contemplating a move.

WHY IT MATTERS: this analysis is interesting even though the source of the data is unclear. It serves as a reminder that bitcoin and other blockchain-related solutions need to be extremely safe and secure because the number of possible attacks is quite high..

WHY IT MATTERS: automation of certain common repetitive tasks in law firms and other professional services organizations has become a reality with the advent of artificial intelligence.

WHY IT MATTERS: a 9 part video series that shows what digital transformation means in the context of an airplane part fabrication from ideation/creation to production. It puts digital transformation concepts in practice with real-life examples.

WHY IT MATTERS: McKinsey proposes a high level description of key things to know about AI. Very high level - maybe too much - but great conversation starter for executives.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to do these 9 things when you start a new role in digital technology - CIO or not. 

WHY IT MATTERS: more and more work is being done remotely. Learn from companies such as Buffer that have decided to have their complete workforce work remotely - and how they managed to pull it off. Digital transformation at its best!

Also remote work lessons just in case you wanted to try it out: https://open.buffer.com/remote-work-lessons/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: we focus on the financial use cases of the blockchain. However there are many more - and potentially more important - use cases for blockchain outside payment and financial transactions. They must be considered careful by anymore preparing a digital strategy today.

Also:

- more recent infographics (2018): https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7y2zld/infographic_use_cases_for_blockchain/

- another list: https://www.experfy.com/blog/blockchain-use-cases-that-have-potential-to-disrupt-society

- other financial use cases explained: https://hackernoon.com/popular-use-cases-of-blockchain-technology-you-need-to-know-df4e1905d373 

- slideshare presentation: https://www.slideshare.net/IBTSMG/blockchain-use-cases-75417476 

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the new world we live in...

WHY IT MATTERS: the USA will bring back manufacturing from emerging countries - but it will not bring back jobs. This article is one more example of this trend: robots are now cheaper, faster, and generally better than humans at doing repetitive tasks. So much so that robots can manufacture clothes better than humans can. See the videos here: http://softwearautomation.com/digital-t-shirt-workline/

They say factories of the (near) future will have only one employee and one dog: the dog is there to keep humans out of the building, and the human is there to feed the dog! ;-).

WHY IT MATTERS: because it is always fun to see robots do things in videos. Also helps to understand what state of the art is in robotics. Watch the videos at the bottom of the article for more.

WHY IT MATTERS: this post from 2013 is still as valid today as it was 5 years ago. Why do so many companies continue to be in denial?

WHY IT MATTERS: this article and video from the Washington Post provide a great over view of what China is doing with face and object recognition as part of its massive 500M cameras (2020 estimates). Nowhere to hide...

Same topic, see the BBC report and video: 7 minutes to get arrested http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-42248056/in-your-face-china-s-all-seeing-state 

Or the very good Bloomberg article : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/china-said-to-test-facial-recognition-fence-in-muslim-heavy-area 

WHY IT MATTERS: we often focus on the negative aspects of digital technologies, from the loss of privacy to potential existential risks of AI (Think Terminator and The Matrix movies). However there are a number of scientists that believe we will augment humans to become more human+machine than replaced by machines. In this view of future evolution, Humanity slowly morphs into a machine by integrating it into our selves, changing our mind and our bodies so that we become undistinguishable from machines. 

This article eloquently explains how this has already started to happen - if only you know where to look.

WHY IT MATTERS: Amazon spends 14.2% of its net sales to fulfill orders and 12.2% to deliver them to consumers. Thus a quarter of the costs of products sold is allocated to logistical costs and this is the biggest hurdle to eCommerce wide adoption. Amazon and other pure plays have a number of key advantages over established brick-n-mortar retailers (no retail store costs, no store employees, etc.) but they have to battle with order preparation and delivery which traditional retailers delegate to their customers as they push their carts in the store aisle. In that context, recent announcement of Sobeys to leverage Ocado's automated warehouse technology or recent Amazon announcement to create a parcel delivery solution that competes with FedEx and UPS makes sense. Any retailer thinking of scaling its eCommerce operation should thus make sure that its business model is viable regarding fulfillment and shipping - all other elements of eCommerce are not an issue.

- Amazon SWA service: http://fmcs.digital/blog/amazon-package-delivery-service-to-compete-with-fedex-and-ups-swa-ecommerce-disruption-retailapocalypse/ 

- Sobeys Ocado partnership: http://fmcs.digital/blog/u-k-s-ocado-taps-into-canadas-online-grocery-market-with-sobeys-tie-up-is-canada-mature-enough-to-have-automated-grocery-fulfillment-centers-ecommerce-robots/ 

- Ocado's technology: http://fmcs.digital/blog/video-shows-ocado-warehouse-technology-that-sobeys-has-acquired-to-prepare-grocery-orders-is-based-on-an-army-of-small-robots-working-on-3d-hive/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: finally something where AI is truly useful! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: Artificial Intelligence is getting into devices everywhere. This is a review of the state of the art with AI-powered security cameras as seen at the CES consumer electronic show in Vegas recently.

WHY IT MATTERS: distribution is the final frontier, the last nut to crack in eCommerce today - as most other aspects, from technology to processes to business models, have already been solved. Distribution remains costly and often an area that retailers - pure plays as well as brick and mortar - struggle with.

As discussed in the past, grocery food delivery appears to be the holy grail of delivery: 1) put trucks on the road with fixed schedules to deliver groceries as the milkmen did in the past 2) manage to break even on these deliveries as this pays for fixed costs - all other deliveries have only a marginal cost and thus become essentially "free"

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transformation is more than just implementing new technologies. There must also be changes in processes and people, often with different organizational structures. This article from Bain presents different alternatives, along with pros and cons for each.

WHY IT MATTERS: we think of robots either what we see on automobile production floors (arms+welder) or as futuristic Terminator human-like machine that does not exist yet. In between, there are many innovations that must happen to bring us closer to a versatile human-like robot.

WHY IT MATTERS: we've been waiting for hands-free computer interaction for years. Now smart speakers are starting to make that possible. They are functional today but not perfect yet and improving at an exponential pace so place this into your mid-term planning.

WHY IT MATTERS: Marketing has been the first department hit by digital transformation starting in the mid 2000s. It is interesting to take a step back after 10-15 years to see how they've evolved - and maybe learn a thing or two for other teams that are starting to feel the pain of digital transformation: administration, human resources, operations, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: Marketing has been the first department hit by digital transformation starting in the mid 2000s. It is interesting to take a step back after 10-15 years to see how they've evolved - and maybe learn a thing or two for other teams that are starting to feel the pain of digital transformation: administration, human resources, operations, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: never miss an update - register here: fmcs.digital/newsletter-signup/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: Marketing has been the first department hit by digital transformation starting in the mid 2000s. It is interesting to take a step back after 10-15 years to see how they've evolved - and maybe learn a thing or two for other teams that are starting to feel the pain of digital transformation: administration, human resources, operations, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: Marketing has been the first department hit by digital transformation starting in the mid 2000s. It is interesting to take a step back after 10-15 years to see how they've evolved - and maybe learn a thing or two for other teams that are starting to feel the pain of digital transformation: administration, human resources, operations, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: social media has become essential for digital and it has become an expertise to format posts and interactions to get success on the most important social networks. Friends at Adviso have prepared this handy list - in french!

WHY IT MATTERS: Marketing has been the first department hit by digital transformation starting in the mid 2000s. It is interesting to take a step back after 10-15 years to see how they've evolved - and maybe learn a thing or two for other teams that are starting to feel the pain of digital transformation: administration, human resources, operations, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: we are all afraid that Big Brother and other digital systems that watch our every moves will have nothing but negative consequences. Research implies that, if we believe strongly that we are being watched by computers, then we will behave better. Kind of like people do when they believe in God. I agree but only if this constant monitoring is done only with a positive goal - but I unfortunately cannot define what positive is...

WHY IT MATTERS: with face recognition security cameras becoming more widely used, I can see a future where your clothes are designed to fool systems into not recognizing you and keeping your privacy intact.

WHY IT MATTERS: face recognition using AI has been around for a few years. It used to require large computers in the cloud. Not anymore. This changes everything.

1) privacy: it will become more and more difficult to protect your privacy in the future. I have written about this before, specifically when the Google glasses came out 3 years ago. It is a concept that is interpreted differently in countries and cultures - such as China vs USA.

2) China: is investing heavily to win the AI war with the US. So we should expect every product - from glasses to door bells to cell phones to cars - to have face recognition built into the device in the very near future. At the CES2018 show, I saw a number of companies that offer face recognition chips ready to be embedded at low price into any consumer device. So it *will* happen. More on China in a later post...

3) protection: people will naturally want to protect themselves. We should start to see face masks that are designed to fool face recognition hardware as has been shown to be possible recently.

More reading:

- google glasses face recognition: http://fmcs.digital/blog/kodak-cameras-banned-in-the-1880s-over-loss-of/ 

- CES security cameras: http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/9ee3fba2-dd87-42c4-ae7c-b2478b752ec3%7C_0.html (in french)

- fooling face recognition: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne43pz/ai-fooling-glasses-could-be-good-enough-to-trick-facial-recognition-at-airports 

WHY IT MATTERS: if you are a retailer Amazon is your competitor. How are you going to compete with it if all you do is have a mediocre website, little social media presence, after-thought eCommerce? Well today you have to include AI in the mix because otherwise all your other efforts will be useless.

WHY IT MATTERS: drones and autonomous vehicles have applications in business settings that may be more valuable and faster to deploy short term than consumer applications we have come to see in recent years - like self-driving cars or drone following humans in the wild. Here MIT has adapted drones to perform inventory control using RFID tags in warehouses. At the recent CES 2018 event, drones from company Eyesee are equipped with high definition cameras perform similar tasks of inventory control and management. These solutions have short-term benefits for enterprises that warrant deployment of what is still a very new technology. In the future, Artificial Intelligence image recognition software should enable even more advanced inventory control.

More on Eyesee autonomous inventory-taking drone:

https://www.hardis-group.com/en/news/ces-2018-eyesee-autonomous-inventory-taking-drone-wins-innovation-award 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wo-5oS1J_0 

https://eyesee-drone.com/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: we all say companies must innovate but often they struggle because of internal operational constraints - after all they have a business to run and cannot disrupt their operations to try things out. That is why such an experiment by CDiscount is so important: they have created both a *place* where startups can do their things and a *process* for them not worry if they break something. Can't wait to see the results of that - but I guess it can only be positive, how can it not be?

WHY IT MATTERS: this is not a surprise as delivery fees are close to 15% of Amazon costs. I wrote about this in the past numerous times and it looks like Amazon is moving in the direction of competing with large delivery providers. Again, Amazon only needs to break even on delivery costs, it does not need to make a profit. Moreover, going into grocery eCommerce can provide additional volume and predictable routes (think milkmen routes) to put trucks on the roads, pay for their fixed costs, and effectively make delivery "free" for all other product categories. When self-driving cars -or more likely autonomous vehicles - become a reality, Amazon will be there to reap the benefits. Another attack of established retail and distribution industry that Amazon is famous for.

More on this: Amazon vs UPS and Fedex (2016 but still relevant: http://fmcs.digital/blog/parcel-delivery-disruption-coming-with-amazon-building-uber-for-trucking-app-and-self-driving-trucks/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: A great analysis of the current pool of talent in AI worldwide - compiled by our local Montreal AI darling startup Element.ai. The conclusion: there are very few experts in the AI field today and even though tools and frameworks are available for newbies to get their feet wet, the learning curve is important.

However, I will suggest that the pool of talent to "integrate" AI into other solutions - mobile apps, eCommerce, production systems, etc. - is much wider and grows exponentially fast. I like to draw parallels with the Internet of late 1990s when anyone with a computer and web browser could develop a website - but very few had the skills to create eCommerce software or scalable web infrastructure.

 

You can see the full report at jfgagne.ai/talent

Ransomware has become one of the most prevalent new cybersecurity threats faced by today’s enterprises. Now well beyond the incipient stage of opportunistic attacks, this automated form of blackmail has increased in prevalence and sophistication. The malware now targets organizations of all sizes as the bad guys look for ways to extort money and create trouble for businesses by taking their data hostage. Dark Reading’s 2017 Ransomware Survey queried IT practitioners about their recent experiences with ransomware and related malware over the past 12 months. Some of the findings include:

  • 35% of organizations detected ransomware on their systems in the past year.
  • 83% of affected organizations responded to infection by deleting the encrypted data and reimagining their systems using backup data.
  • Two in five organizations don’t have a ransomware response plan in place.
  • Only 27% of organizations believe current anti-malware technology is effective in preventing ransomware.
  • Half of IT practitioners believe it will be harder to prevent ransomware from infecting their systems two years from now.

WHY IT MATTERS: ransomware has made headlines in recent months but it appears that most organization manage to recover from backup data instead of paying the crooks. This report claims only 3% of organizations pay - but it still accounts for a whole lot of trouble, downtime and effort for those organization that find an alternate route. Better be prepared against those attacks!

WHY IT MATTERS: the web has moved from being simply a digital brochure to the source where all other channels derive their content - from print brochures, ads, mobile, emails, etc. In that context it is not a surprise that web solutions (or web content management solutions) have become platforms. So important is this technology trend that retailers now consider their eCommerce solution as the most important tool when looking to replace their POS solution in store. Thus this review from Gartner can help identify that future enterprise leaders may not be IBM, Microsoft and Oracle but Acquia, Adobe or Sitecore. Then again, one should expect these leaders to acquire those DX platforms to keep their position within the organization. Fun times ahead!

WHY IT MATTERS: wearables offer the potential to help track our every move, providing a trove of information to improve health and work. Already there is proof that Apple watches can detect heart attacks. If this patent from 2016 by Amazon is built into a product and deployed, work productivity can improve as well. Of course this may have serious implications for privacy or work requirements, but we must get used to it. With robots falling in price and AI letting them do more and more human-level tasks, the future of work is bound to be measured much more closely than it is today.

 

Detailed description of the patent filing: https://www.geekwire.com/2018/amazon-wins-patents-wireless-wristbands-track-warehouse-workers/ 

Apple watch detects heart attackshttp://fmcs.digital/blog/killer-use-case-for-wearables-study-apple-watch-accurately-detects-heart-problems/ 

State of Robot industry 2017http://fmcs.digital/blog/3m-robots-in-2020-40b-industry-they-are-used-mostly-in-autophone-manufacturing-but-we-should-expect-more-industries-to-use-them-in-near-future-stats-china/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: taking the human out of the equation seems to be the future of warfare, with countries quest for AI dominance the most probable cause to trigger WW3 in the coming years. 

WHY IT MATTER: good reference to use as a checklist when you start your eCommerce activities - or just a reminder if you are already doing it. Moreover, just browsing through the list makes you realize at just how complex eCommerce has become over the years.

WHY IT MATTER: this month's top 5 posts on digital transformation of business.

WHY IT MATTERS: we can't trust our eyes anymore! read this to realize just how advanced this technology has become and anyone can use it. For more in depth description of the technology and its potential, go here: http://www.businessinsider.com/cgi-ai-fake-video-audio-news-hoaxes-information-warfare-revenge-porn-2017-8 

WHY IT MATTERS: It is important to be present on the digital mediums out there, from Facebook to LinkedIn and many others. No need to post or share anything personal, JUST CLAIM YOUR DIGITAL PLACE! Otherwise someone else may - with dire consequences.

I have written some posts that may complete this one from Krebs:

http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-moi-get-started-10-actions/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: today is Superbowl, too bad we don't have this just yet. Can't be too long though, given all the recent AR products and solutions in the pipeline. For more: http://fmcs.digital/blog/tag/ar/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: On the heals of recent technology deals between Ocado and Carrefour in France and Sobeys in Canada, this paper and others explain how the technology works.

HUMAN-LESS WAREHOUSE

The technology is akin to a huge vending machine, where products are stored in compartments that robots can access when required. More important is that this technology can apply to any product you can buy online, not only grocery. In fact, figuring grocery item picking is probably the most difficult product category - with 3 temperature items (room, cold, frozen) and lots of small and delicate products (think tomatoes and meat). This will help reduce the cost and errors of web order fulfilment, and potentially speed delivery to make 1hr delays possible. When coupled with robot manipulation and self-driving delivery vans, the days of human-free order preparation and delivery is fast approaching.

RETAIL ARMAGGEDON

This will revolutionize the way we think of retail and distribution by making the store useless. The value chain will become produce-warehouse-home.

 

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/grocery-4-0-ocado-reshapes-retail-grocery-with-robotics-and-automation/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iogFXDWqDak 

WHY IT MATTERS: one of the key use case for blockchain is food traceability improvements, allowing faster and more precise product recalls for example. A recent study here shows that executives need lots of education and training to adopt and deploy the technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: great tools are always useful to have. Here's another list focussed on eCommerce.

WHY IT MATTERS: we must remain more careful than ever regarding the explosion of "fake" social media. This article - along with another referenced in there - provides a glimpse at how huge the world of "fake" is on the Internet: fake news, fake accounts, fake reviews, etc. It raises serious questions about anonymity vs. "verified" and personally identifiable content/accounts - and the potential loss of privacy. Maybe blockchain will provide a solution to guarantee traceability to real individuals while retaining privacy? In any case, something has to happen otherwise the web and social media will soon become nothing but a polluted dump site of fake content....

WHY IT MATTERS: one chart say it all: retailers are not equipped to fight against Amazon unless they band together and innovate.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI recent progress was made possible mostly by supervised learning: humans providing AI algorithms with the right kind of insight to understand the world. Reinforcement learning provides an enhanced level of improvement as it lets machine teach machine. This is one example. Expect more in the coming years and brace for exponential growth of this technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI will disrupt industries that had been left mostly alone by the digital Internet revolution: Finance, Accounting, Law, Medecine, etc. They are all industries that rely on visual or text analysis but require very simple processing to perform the most routine back office tasks. This report presents the impact in very detailed fashion and this summary is useful because it applies to many industries, if you adjust the terminology. It highlights one key element: learn to program and to analyze data because these are the jobs of the (near) future. For those crazy enough to read the 280 pages, here is the link: http://valuesimplex.com/articles/JPM.pdf 

WHY IT MATTERS: Big data and Internet of things - where every device in the world is connected - has huge potential. At the same time, this enhanced traceability has downsides for privacy and security, as evidenced by this article from The Guardian. Other similar examples in the past have highlighted the possible issues: robbers get caught by police when the photos they post of their robbery includes their GPS location, or face identification cameras in China let government track individuals as they walk the street. We will have to find a solution for this in the future.

Other articles I wrote about the strava Big Data visualization are here:

2017 dataset: http://fmcs.digital/blog/where-people-go-to-play-strava-global-heatmap-aggregates-1b-activities-and-13t-data-points-to-show-where-people-run-bike-in-the-world-bigdata-maps/ 

2015 dataset: http://fmcs.digital/blog/strava-170m-ridesruns-heatmap-shows-most-popular-bike-run-trails-of-2015-with-bigdata-gps-crowdsourcing/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: Benedict Evans from a16z always manages to summarize exactly where we are and where we are going. This presentation is a must see.

WHY IT MATTERS: you don't need to be a mechanic to drive a car but it helps if you understand the principles of a car - engine, drive shaft, carburator, etc. - to help you when you buy or get serviced. Well I believe the same should hold true for technology in your computer or your cell phone. So no need to listen to these videos to use Apple Siri or Google assistant, but it will certainly make some of it feel less "magical".

WHY IT MATTERS: fakes news is small stuff if fake videos become a reality. This article explains the state of the art. What I found most interesting at the CES show is how fast those improvements in AI make it into hardware. This allows technologies that can only work offline - using large set of computers in the cloud - to become available for real-time low-cost solutions in consumer devices. This means that the technology you read about in this article may well be available as a standard component in your cell phone camera within 5 years. And then we won'T be able to believe our eyes...

WHY IT MATTERS: we often suffer from tunnel vision when it comes to digital technology. Case in point: self-driving is not just for cars. Expect every vehicle to be self-driving in the mid-term (10 years). That means cars, truck, planes, bikes, lift trucks (warehouse), tractors (agriculture), luggage (travel), etc. This article is just one example of that.

WHY IT MATTERS: self-driving cars are possible but some time in the future. This is because they need to be completely autonomous in all situations, something very difficult with the current state of AI technology. However, cars equipped with sensors and cameras and telecommunication can allow remote operators to drive them - they do it for drones already and for heavy machinery in mines. This article explains how a new startup does it. Interesting to grasp just how complex the whole thing is. Moreover, self-driving vehicles appear to be doing the same to get their self-driving cars out of complex situations the AI cannot deal with. 

WHY IT MATTERS: most companies in the list are US, some Canadian (GO-Habs-GO!) and some are Chinese. But watch out, AI may be "made in China" real soon! As I return from CES2018, I expect that future lists will be dominated by China in the coming years given the level of intensity that I have seen at the show. This is good (competition always is) but I have just one note of care: privacy protection may suffer if we are not careful. Case in point: China already uses public AI powered security cameras to track individuals and do public shaming in bus stops. More on this in a later post...

WHY IT MATTERS: I was there but could never do as good a job to review and make editorial comments as in this post. Full of pictures, descriptions and editorial comments worth reading, cutting through the hype and the marketing stuff...

WHY IT MATTERS: if AI still feels too theoretical for you or too far fetched, then you should consider the use cases detailed in this article to spark your next strategic meeting discussions.

WHY IT MATTERS: retailers cannot compete with Amazon on the level of R&D investment so they have to leverage technology developed by others. Here at CES2018 the company Aipoly from San Francisco just launched the technology required to enable forward looking retailers in their modernization.

WHY IT MATTERS: I was floored when Amazon announced the GO concept in Dec 2016 (13 months ago!) and commented about it in different posts http://fmcs.digital/?s="amazon+go". Now their 1st store opens and pictures start surfacing. The big question now is: how are established retailers going to compete with this level of digital innovation given their anemic investments in R&D? Most don't even have a good eCommerce website. No wonder pundits predict a retail armageddon...

 

top 20 R&D spend: https://www.statista.com/statistics/265645/ranking-of-the-20-companies-with-the-highest-spending-on-research-and-development/ 

retail armageddon: https://news.usc.edu/121222/retail-armageddon-more-bankruptcies-in-four-months-than-all-of-2016/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: marketing expertise relies more and more on technology: AI, big data, beacons, emails, etc. Will the marketing resources be able to change and gain the skills required to deliver? Change management is key.

WHY IT MATTERS: Sobey's seems to bet that improvements in the warehouse logistics will deliver a profitable online grocery business model. I am skeptical for 2 reasons: 1) Canada is a lagger in the eCommerce space with few high density cities and low online grocery penetration, and 2) the only way to make money in online grocery is to figure out the delivery aspect of the process - the Ocado deal does not appear to provide any expertise on that front. But Sobeys (through IGA in Quebec) has been a pioneer in the ecommerce area, with my gang launching their first transactional website more than 20 years ago in 1996. So they know what it means to innovate.

Have a look at Ocado's automated warehouse robots to gain a better understanding of what Sobey's is getting in this deal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJqsdprXF5c

WHY IT MATTERS: this is the basic of how artificial intelligence works. Everyone should understand this to gain little bit more understanding of the digital world around us.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great talk from one of the great minds in AI and technology in general. Moreover he provides an optimistic viewpoint on AI and the changes that are coming in the next few years. And remember, when you reach 1% of the final goal, you are only 7 years from 100%, assuming doubling every year or so. This is what exponential growth means.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to have those list in our back pocket.

WHY IT MATTERS: good to read for those that have missed the NRF this year.

WHY IT MATTERS: when a giant like Walmart says eCommerce grocery pickup is a good thing, you should listen. Then again, reading the article from the NYTimes, you could substitute IGA Quebec for Walmart and you'd have pretty much the same, except in 1998! We were such pioneers at mybutler.com that I have to question my business acumen - I was 20 years too early!!!!!

WHY IT MATTERS: A great review of the elements that combine to make artificial intelligence a reality today, along with its potential for the future.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great review of the performance of Artificial Intelligence in areas such as gaming, image recognition, speech recognition, machine translation and natural language processing.

WHY IT MATTERS: learning is an essential skill to survive in today's digital transformation. Without it you won't be able to adapt. This article provides some very useful tools and practices to put you in the right mindset to start the new year.

WHY IT MATTERS: training artificial intelligence algorithms requires lots of data. This new project has already gathered data about 125K species from over 7M observations worldwide. Expect this and other contributions to continue the exponential growth of image recognition technologies.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article describes the current state of text understanding with the angle of text translation by machines. It opens up discussions of what it means to be human.

WHY IT MATTERS: this 30min video is the best, by far, explanation of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on business today and the near future.

WHY IT MATTERS: machine learning biggest advantage over human learning is that machines can share what they learn. For example, robots and self-driving cars can train using a simulator before they go in the real world. Moreover they can transfer what they learn in one field - say cat-dog image analysis - and apply it to another domain - say reading medical X-ray. This vastly improves the speed with which machines learn. This is a definitive advantage for machines that can ride digital technology's exponential growth. Ultimately, machines will become way more intelligent than humans because of their capacity to leverage the sum of all previous knowledge from birth, unlike us humans. We are doomed!

WHY IT MATTERS: robots present a solution for the skilled labour shortage and requirements to cut production times and reduce costs in an era of personalization. Read the report for more data.

WHY IT MATTERS: retail is transforming rapidly and companies that fail to transform using digital solutions are starting to suffer. With NRF retail conference around the corner, what do you think retailers should do to remain relevant?

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is useful for more than making recommendations of Netflix movies to watch. Here it is applied to the issue of robot hand grasping and the video shows amazing result with robots able to close an amazon shipping box container. wow!

WHY IT MATTERS: digital transforms every single business functions in the organizations. But unlike previous eras such as the Internet, this may be existential for many organizations. Thomas Siebel makes a very compelling arguments to get going big and hire great partners and consultants - think of me when you do! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: A good summary of potential use cases and applications for key digital technologies that revolutionize business.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI toolkits are now plentiful and opensource, this is just one of them. Why opensource? Because the real value is in the data you have, not the software. It's the data stupid...!

WHY IT MATTERS: 3D printing has the potential to disrupt industries when it can manufacture products at scale and low cost. We are closer to this vision.

WHY IT MATTERS: IOT and wearables are giving us a whole new way to see our world. Here, Strava fitness app has built a new world map to show where people go to play and exercise.

WHY IT MATTERS: we've heard that robots will replace humans for so many years now that we tend to dismiss such claims. This demonstration shows that this may change in the near future with huge impact on manufacturing of course but also in autonomous vehicles, delivery drones and maybe personal robots. And this would be something very significant given the difficulty that employers have finding workers for certain low skills jobs such as truck drivers https://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmh45edlmk/2017-30-under-30-the-st/#28c4963119b4 

It may come as no surprise that technology-centric roles stole the show among emerging jobs in the United States, but the prevalence of machine learning and data science roles and skills indicate a shift in the types of technology we can expect to be using in the near future, as well as what professionals should be preparing themselves for.

Having an academic background and a comprehensive suite of skills were also strong trends, especially among professionals who are now machine learning engineers and data scientists. Both of these roles are also often held by professionals with 10 years or more of professional experience, so for those just starting out and having trouble landing one of these titles, don’t be discouraged!

It’s always a good reminder that soft skills will always be important, no matter the profession. The ability to collaborate, be a leader, and learn from colleagues will stand out in interviews, and even more once starting a job.

WHY IT MATTERS: the conclusion of the study is simple: go to University and study something related to technology. Simple, no?

WHY IT MATTERS: a new twist on security cameras mean there may be a life for all those old phones lying around. If you are a programmer you can also look at the source code to find out how they do what they do...

WHY IT MATTERS: Google has been capturing and translating data for a very long time and by doing so it can provide digital services that way better than anything else their competitors can do. This example of maps is just one in many but this one is particularly well documented. Kudos.

WHY IT MATTERS: software developers have proven for years that agile approaches deliver much better results than tradition approaches dubbed "waterfall". I believe that because I have lived it many times. Now it is time for others in the organization to embrace agile approaches. And for those that know agile, remember that I always prefer to have pigs on my projects (for others, read this https://www.implementingscrum.com/2006/09/11/the-classic-story-of-the-pig-and-chicken/)

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a great analogy that use in many occasions to explain the difference between contribution and commitment. I want commitment in my projects, thus only pigs!

WHY IT MATTERS: anyone can post anything on Facebook or elsewhere on the net. Having a tool that spots your face on pictures to warn you may be the ultimate privacy-notification to come out of Facebook. I hope that other holders of large databases of pictures - especially Apple and Google because of their mobile phones - would do the same.

WHY IT MATTERS: there is often a downside to advanced technology, especially those that can allow its owner dominance. In this video scenario, humans weaponize drones with AI. But the real danger is for superintelligent AI to turn against us humans. 

For more, read the amazing book Superintelligence: http://sco.lt/5uYgyn 

Disruptive technologies are transforming all end-to-end steps in production and business models in most sectors of the economy. The products that consumers demand, factory processes and footprints, and the management of global supply chains are being re-shaped to an unprecedented degree and at unprecedented pace. Industry leaders who were consulted believe that new technological solutions heralded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution – such as advanced robotics, autonomous systems and additive manufacturing – will revolutionize traditional ways of creating value. As the costs of deploying technology continue to fall, international differentials in labour costs will no longer be a decisive factor in choosing the location of production.

The resulting greater spatial and temporal flexibility brought about by technology will bring locations of production and sale closer together, and drive major changes in the design of future value and supply chains. These trends will change the shape and form of globalization, and thereby impact the trajectory of goods. Regional and local flows will become more important, to the detriment of intercontinental trade.

WHY IT MATTERS: the world economic forum keeps putting out great reports on the impact of digital transformation. I love the illustrations, great summary of key trends and their adoption. Must read.

WHY IT MATTERS: everyone has been expecting this device for a long time as may be as important as the iPhone launch was for smartphones. The glasses should allow its wearer to live in augmented reality. Those that have tried this before say it is A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. see this for example: https://twitter.com/BenedictEvans/status/943504687457755136 

WHY IT MATTERS: I reported in the past that Prime programme has a total value of 143B$ (http://sco.lt/8ot9NJ). These updated numbers show that growth continues outside the US. Expect Amazon to leverage its membership programme to wall-in its clients and protect it from competition. Tough road ahead for other retailers as Prime members will be looking to stay with the brand.

WHY IT MATTERS: it is possible for banks to be digital only as evidenced by this top50 worldwide. This is a major trend for the future in this sector but in many others as well: digital only insurer, digital only law firm, etc. Expect more of this in the coming years. And for existing businesses: what should you do about it?...

WHY IT MATTERS: the more we digitize our businesses and our lives the more we are exposed to hacking. The explosion of cryptocurrencies hacking and recent months appears to be a strong trend. A great series of articles on the subject is presented here.

WHY IT MATTERS: using Big Data and AI techniques on the ever expanding data around us can help predict things that are often surprising. Expect more like this in the coming years with the increase in Internet of Things.

WHY IT MATTERS: AR is one of those technologies that have been discussed for so many years and that will explode into the scene with a plethora of consumer and business applications in the coming years. An overnight success story that has been 10 years in the making (if not more). This paper helps managers see business applications for this technology.

What makes it so compelling in the fact that mobile devices (2B+ and counting) all have support for this technology builtin. Just checkout the video I made using my Google Pixel 2 phone camera this morning. It just works!

https://www.facebook.com/fmheir/posts/10155798075150309

And Apple iOS users have the equivalent.

WHY IT MATTERS: believe in blockchain technology but be careful about bitcoin. This article raises very valid concerns that should make anyone take very careful steps with their bitcoin investments - as it could all disappear the day that another "better" or more stable cryptocurrency appears on the market...

WHY IT MATTERS: manufacturers need to enforce their pricing policies. Online ecommerce raises a number of challenges but tools like Trackstreet provide advanced solutions to help manage this critical aspect of any brand.

WHY IT MATTERS: look at this list of questions for your board of directors and ask them if they have an answer for each one in the context of digital transformation, artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, 3D printing, etc. Most likely, they won't. Then call me ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this series of articles tries to explain in non technical terms how the blockchain works and why it is secure. Good job! 

Also read part 2 here: https://medium.com/loom-network/understanding-blockchain-fundamentals-part-2-proof-of-work-proof-of-stake-b6ae907c7edb

WHY IT MATTERS: I've used the electricity metaphor many times before to explain the digital transformation potential impact on businesses. Jezz Bezos here gives us a great presentation that I believe also applies to more current technologies that are artificial intelligence and the blockchain. Well invested 15min video (or 7.5min at 2x speed ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: finally we get to see what the digital strategy for the province of Quebec. Can't wait to sift through the 89 page document to find out if it goes beyond infrastructure deployment to ensure everyone can connect to the digital superhighway (as I find this may be required but may be 20 years too late...).

Taiwanese e-commerce platform OwlTing wants to change the way consumers think about their food. This year, it launched the world’s first blockchain-based app for tracing food products — including pork. And the process is pretty simple: by scanning a sticker on a slab of pork, OwlTing customers can quickly access information about everything from a piglet’s date of birth, to the vaccines it received before its slaughter. There’s a lot more to blockchain technology than learning obscure facts about a pork chop, however. For producers, using blockchain-based technologies to trace food through processing and shipping means that they might be able to avoid widespread food waste should a contamination arise — and even save lives. And it is not just small companies that are interested in this technology. The largest retailer in the world, Walmart recently partnered with IBM to develop their own pilot blockchain system. VICE News Tonight visited Taiwan to see how blockchain is affecting pork production, and then to Walmart to find out why the company thinks consumers are going to benefit from this technology.

WHY IT MATTERS: blockchain is the technology behind the crypto-currency bitcoin. It has applications in many industries and this short video shows how it can be used in to track food products and prevent illnesses.

WHY IT MATTERS: anyone committing to a 100-year study is worth my attention. And to have the best in the field do that I find is just the best way for future generations to understand the context in which we make decisions regarding how AI develops. Fascinating. Just look at the topics they cover:

  1. Technical trends and surprises
  2. Key opportunities for AI
  3. Delays with translating AI advances into real-world value. 
  4. Privacy and machine intelligence. 
  5. Democracy and freedom. 
  6. Law. 
  7. Ethics. 
  8. Economics. 
  9. AI and warfare. 
  10. Criminal uses of AI. 
  11. Collaborations with machines. 
  12. AI and human cognition. 
  13. Safety and autonomy. 
  14. Loss of control of AI systems. 
  15. Psychology of people and smart machines. 
  16. Communication, understanding, and outreach. 
  17. Neuroscience and AI. 
  18. AI and philosophy of mind.

WHY IT MATTERS: in this article BCG explores the underlying elements that should drive digital transformation in organizations. Not for the faint at heart.

Digital transformation - extending and exposing business processes outside the organisation - by implementing a digital strategy – a statement about the organisation’s digital positioning, operating model, competitors and customer and collaborator needs and behaviour through the delivery of digital solutions defined in a digital architecture – a future state application, data and technology view to achieve digital operating status - is potentially (very) complex. Digital architecture does not exist in isolation entirely separate from an organisation’s overall enterprise architecture. Digital architecture must exist within the within the wider enterprise architecture context. Enterprise architecture provides the tools and the approaches to manage the complexity of digital transformation. 

WHY IT MATTERS: we need more work such as this one to help manage the digital transformation in our organizations. Unfortunately, as with many things EA related, this is a bit theoretical and grandiose but starting at slide 28 you may find elements worth using in your own architectures.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI researcher often struggle to explain concepts in their research. They have created a new publication platform to help make papers easier to understand and reduce what they call "research debt". I think the same applies to many other fields...

WHY IT MATTERS: the video regroups leaders in the field and shows the current state of the art in AI and its economics. PArt of a larger conference at MIT on AI.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI evolves rapidly and this report presents the state of the world (mostly the US at this time) as it relates to AI. Must read.

WHY IT MATTERS: we all go to stores and seldom notice the technology that surrounds us and tracks our moves.

WHY IT MATTERS: this series of article present the fundamental technologies behind AI in a very simple and easy to understand way.

WHY IT MATTERS: facial recognition libraries have made it very simple to include the feature in any system. Read the article to understand how facial recognition works then jump to this other post to try out the actual code to do it. https://blog.paperspace.com/facial-recognition-using-deep-learning/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: cloud computing has made it possible to develop machine learning and deep learning solutions much more easily. Follow the links in the article for other great products and solutions including petuum

WHY IT MATTERS: teach one human to drive and you are safe. Teach one self-driving car to drive then all other cars benefits from the experience. I predict that soon - if not already - Google self driving cars will be safer than human drivers - just because they will have covered more roads and encountered more driving situations. And it will not stop there and will keep improving every day. This is true for cars but will also be true for all other areas in which AI will be applied: medecine, law, agriculture, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: advances in computer vision due to deep learning algorithms has opened a world of possibilities for companies. Read this article and accompanying HBR posts. Great series.

WHY IT MATTERS: this paper explains how facial recognition is already in use in retail stores to track shopping behaviours, identify shoplifters but also recognize individual shoppers to provide personal service. Creepy or useful?

Exclusive research by us at LDV Capital is the first publicly shared, in-depth analysis which estimates how many cameras will be in the world in 2022. Key Findings include:

  • Most of the pictures captured will never be seen by a human eye.
  • A paradigm shift will take place in the meaning and use of a camera.
  • Over the next five years there will be a proliferation of cameras integrated into products across industries and markets.
  • Where there is growth in cameras there will be tremendous business opportunities in the capture, analysis and interpretation of visual data.
  • Depth capture will double the number of cameras in handheld cameras.
  • By 2022, the number of cameras will be nearly 12X the 2012 figures.
  • Your smartphone will have between 4 and 10 cameras by 2022.
  • The Internet of Eyes will be larger than the Internet of Things.
  • In the next five years, robotics will have 20X more integrated cameras.
  • By 2022, all new vehicles will be equipped with more than 25 cameras and this does not include Lidar or Radar.

WHY IT MATTERS: cameras will become ubiquitous and AI systems will analyze those images to provide business services but also track our every move. This reports presents trends in this area.

WHY IT MATTERS: the paper referenced in this blog post explains in great details how neural networks are used to detect moving objects. Fascinating. Also very technical, weak heart should abstain... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: explains in relatively simple terms how hackers work and get access to computers and websites. Good to know.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article describes what bitcoins are and what the blockchain - the underlying technology is. Make it your weekend reading. Then go out and buy 20$ worth of bitcoins. On Monday you'll know more than most people in your office!

WHY IT MATTERS: AI will replace many human activities - from driving trucks to auditing accounting books. Futurists predict that new jobs will emerge, jobs that today do not make sense but that in the future will become essential - same way that our ancestors in early 1900s would not have believed that data scientist or software programmer or webmaster would exist today...

WHY IT MATTERS: understanding of the human brain is essential to improve artificial intelligence. Advances in brain scanning technologies have allowed researchers to map 700 neurons in a ouse brain and the results are presented here. Look at the 2min video to understand what has been achieved. 

WHY IT MATTERS: social turmoil in the coming years. Trump has capitalized on coal workers fears of loosing their jobs. In 5 and 10 years, millions of workers in Finance, accounting, clerical jobs, but also truck drivers and warehouse workers will be out of a job - or fearing they will loose their jobs or seeing their salaries frozen or wages pressured in downward trends. They will be asked to retrain and maybe re-locate. Most won't and will expect their unions or their governments to do something against the business world and rich techies. We must - sadly - plan for social turmoil in the coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS: everyone is wondering what the blockchain will be good for. I reported previously on non-financial use cases. Here this post presents and argues on 4 key financial use cases. Read to understand more about bitcoin/blockchain.

WHY IT MATTERS: the article very well sums up the changes that will impact us all - and the conclusion is bleak. When production is plentiful, very few have jobs. Having access to what is produced becomes the issue - if you don't have a job, you don't have the means to buy what gets produced. We will enter an era of social tensions and can only hope it will not be resolved in a 3rd world war.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI hype is in full swing and element.ai has charted the Canadian ecosystem, with a promise to keep updated the list that now tracks 550 companies and organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: this startup is developing an AI system to replace checkout registers and enable any store to become like an Amazon GO, the concept store from Amazon showcased in December 2016. Retails stores will transform in the near future with technologies such as this one but also others such as location beacons, new floor plans, etc. More on Amazon GO:

why GO concept works: http://sco.lt/8RIFSD
what we know: http://sco.lt/8G4pZB

WHY IT MATTERS : the video provides a great review of the state of technology when it comes to robots and robotics today from one of the leading researcher in the field. The talk is peppered with short videos of actual robots so you get a good sense of what's possible today. But remember that we live in an exponential growth era, so things improve very fast.

WHY IT MATTERS: robots are moving out of the factory floor to invade all other spaces - from parking to retail stores. Here a great example of a robots to handle a routine and very important task for retailers: identifying what is on store shelves so as to minimize the out of stock items and mapping store layout for order pickers (every store is different so picking items is often a nightmare). Of course, this will impact jobs - even though Walmart says it won't.

WHY IT MATTERS: would you allow an invasion of your privacy to improve your life expectancy? I assume most of us would say YES if assured that the information would remain secure and private. What technologies need to be put in place? Do we need government regulations to protect everyone equally? These are the real questions behind advances such as this one. Moreover are there solutions using blockchain technology to allow for this to become possible?

WHY IT MATTERS: software is everywhere and more often than not, AI will be everywhere in the future. This articles proves that if you want to do it, programming neural networks is not that big of deal. That being said, from this simple coding experiment to developing a self driving car, there is much to do. But to gain the basic fundamentals that you require to understand the world around you in the coming years, it is well worth the investment, don't you think?

WHY IT MATTERS: for the techno geeks this is a great reference.

WHY IT MATTERS: the article explains how generative design work and will transform the creative process in the near future. It manages quite well to show how it is difficult to forecast the future and that movies - the example they use is blade runner - fails to see important new transformative technologies.

I wrote about generative design tools and solutions in the past here http://sco.lt/8ookan 

WHY IT MATTERS: my 17 year old says everyone at school is doing it - selling their old clothes on instagram. Very simple: open an account like "oncelovedclothing", take pictures of clothes you don't wear anymore, let instagram users bid for the items, at school they simply exchange money for items. Easy. No eBay, no kijiji, no intermediary. Wow.

WHY IT MATTERS: very useful framework that can be applied in many fields to manage employees in high-demand technical skills such a software engineers. A reference for me in the future.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital projects and software has become really easy to make today so why are so many projects difficult to get started and expensive? Maybe because so few know what is possible or leverage the latest technologies?

WHY IT MATTERS: we expected it to happen in the future, a few years from now. Not today, not so soon. Especially not in the USA, the country of frivolous lawsuits. This goes to prove how confident Google must be about its self-driving technology. Anyone planning for digital transformation in its business must consider self-driving cars as something to "trial" in the coming years - not as something to "watch for" anymore. WOW.

WHY IT MATTERS: if you do not include self-driving trucks and electrification into your strategic digital plan for distribution then you will have competitors that are 4x cheaper than you are competing for your clients in the coming years. Start planning what it means to your people, processes, and internal technologies. Put together prototypes and proof-of-concepts with startups in the area today. This is what digital transformation will mean in the 2020s: we are way past having a nice a website and eCommerce!

WHY IT MATTERS: this new tools provides a very simple way to understand what AI can do to fool us all. Right now if you want to test the tool for yourself you'll have to wait 2 days for the results as the servers are overwhelmed (Nov 07 5pm). But try it, it will amaze you. And maybe also scare you.

WHY IT MATTERS: great tools from mozilla to gain behind the scenes access to the web pages you browse every day. Similar tools can be found on chrome and IE as well.

https://developer.chrome.com/devtools 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/f12-devtools-guide 

WHY IT MATTERS: I understand that open source libraries are useful but have we gone mad? An application such as slack uses 1739 different libraries makes me wonder if this is really needed or if all those dependencies expose the system to issues that would not otherwise be there.

WHY IT MATTERS: robots will grow and bring back manufacturing to "developed" countries such as the US but they won't bring back jobs.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a blockchain based on ethereum that is composed of 20 cryptocurrencies that is about to start trading. I wonder if I should buy into it? Would you? If so why would you or would you not?

WHY IT MATTERS: I shy away from these projections but here it comes from scholars at Oxford and Yale so I give more value. Moreover it tracks with the projections I have read from the Singularity is Near and other books on the matter. Moreover I like the visualization because it shows concrete tasks that we can all relate to. And look at the timeline, remembering that 2026 is less than 10 years from now...

WHY IT MATTERS: a short 15min video to listen to this weekend and bring very good conversation topics for Sunday dinner with the kids...

WHY IT MATTERS: crazy the hype around blockchain, bitcoin/ethereum and Initial coin Offerings (ICOs). Hyper dangerous because the technology and the support systems are not anywhere near being available, let alone ready for full production. So great idea to experiment and get feet wet but not ready for prime time. But hype makes it sound like they are ready - thread carefully. At the same time, don't let this one go by because it appears to be as important as the web for what it can disrupt... Merci Vahé pour la nouvelle.

WHY IT MATTERS: robots are everywhere and PWC projections from 2014 shows growth in many areas outside manufacturing.

WHY IT MATTERS: robots will soon replace humans in Amazon warehouses, as there are already 45000 kiva robots and growing. Moreover, the tasks that robots can perform is expanding and Amazon is pushing the limits of what's possible with this annual robotics challenge. 

Also see

- Economist story http://econ.st/2yO8n90 

- projections that US manufacturing jobs will continue decline while robots growth at an accelerated pace http://bit.ly/2yOFhWO 

- PWC estimates that robots will replace pretty every human worker in every industry https://pwc.to/2yQ270n 

WHY IT MATTERS: actually it doesn't matter but it hurts when I see stats like this one... Only 20% of grocery sales will be conducted online says FMI+Nielsen, when we estimated that we'd reach that number by 2005 when we first launched IGA cybermarket on Aug 25 1996! Grocery will probably the last industry to convert to online - and I understand why because of intrinsic complexity (perishable products, tiny margins, etc.).

WHY IT MATTERS: retailers and retail stores are bound to be affected by emerging technologies such as this one. If you can view clothes on a virtual mannequin that has your measurements, why would you ever go in a physical store? Store will have to evolve to offer more than products on shelves or racks, but an experience and an interaction with customers. And THAT should be what retailer's strategic plans should include this year.

WHY IT MATTERS: forecasts are that robots will outnumber human workers in Amazon warehouses by 2020. This trial from GAP goes along in that direction: remotely-controlled robots with AI help prepare orders in the warehouse. This tech should be on everyone's strategic plan for distribution and logistics in the coming years.

The era of easily-faked photos is quickly emerging—much as it did when Photoshop became widely prevalent—so it’s a good time to remember we shouldn’t trust everything we see.

WHY IT MATTERS: looks like we are getting closer to a world where fake news includes photos and videos. Watch out!

WHY IT MATTERS: digital technologies impact every business, not just retailers and manufacturers. Professional services - law and accounting in particular - will be hit most in coming months. This is just one example. Bravo for taking the lead!

WHY IT MATTERS: delivery is the biggest downside of eCommerce. It is expensive and problematic when clients are not there to accept the delivery. Amazon will trial a delivery system based on smart locks and cameras to let delivery person enter your home when you are not there to deliver the products. Will clients accept the intrusion into their homes? Will there be privacy concerns? Theft? Trials start Nov 8 2017. For many more articles and videos see twitter moment http://bit.ly/2yMrVKJ 

WHY IT MATTERS: with digital transformation often comes increased level of digital threats. Good to keep in mind that there are tools to help reduce the risk of attacks or their impact when they happen.

WHY IT MATTERS: we will see an explosion of augmented reality solution in the near future with large players investing heavily to make this technology pervasive across mobile devices and systems. This landscape is most interesting as it shows that AR applications span many fields and industries, from retail to construction. Moreover, the accompanying article on Venture Beat highlights 6 areas where the technology can be applied: bionic vision, natural interaction, 3Dfying the world, world building, telepresence, and  superintelligence. See here http://bit.ly/2iyndw0  

WHY IT MATTERS: follow the links in this short article for further reading on key elements of a digital strategy.

WHY IT MATTERS: always surprised when I see that paper-based processes continue to exist today. They are low hanging fruits for digital transformation.

WHY IT MATTERS: just drop a photo in the page and watch what Google vision API returns. Amazing.

WHY IT MATTERS: everything is digital and thus mandates to be monitored properly. There are no excuse today when solutions exists for a few dollars per month that can track your website/ecommerce/systems status and report to all when there is an issue.

WHY IT MATTERS: we all think bandwidth is infinite but real world tells us that networks are very slow - even 3G - and that developers should be more careful about their page size to ensure they load fast and give users an enjoyable experience. Been doing web and digital for 20+ years and I am still surprised that we have to fight for every single KB we put on a page.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI will replace junior analyst roles in sifting through tons of data to understand the past and predict the future. I wrote about systems that could summarize information from a single source called AIinsights into readable text in the past (http://sco.lt/7FRff7) but here PREDICT seems to be doing a similar job but by aggregating millions of documents data.

Also read the story on Fortune http://for.tn/2yRNBrd or go direct to Predict.ai and read their intro document http://bit.ly/2yQJEml  

WHY IT MATTERS: Google is putting AI in everything they do and makes it really easy for developers to embed AI into their website, app, or tool. To quickly test the vision API and be amazed go here: https://cloud.google.com/vision 

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to know what others are thinking.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital had the promise to change the way we work and bring the promise of meritocracy closer. This may be the start. I look forward to see the app itself and the process.

WHY IT MATTERS: great advice from the women that (literally) wrote the book on enterprise architecture and knows what it takes to transform an organization. Pay special attention to #3 (and call me! ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: 140 slides presentation with new data and trends.

WHY IT MATTERS: self-learning is important in AI and this is a major milestone. Follow the link for the Nature paper that explains the algorithm and advances: https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v550/n7676/full/nature24270.html 

WHY IT MATTERS: a glimpse behind the hardware that is required to power a self-driving car. Of course it comes from the folks that initially worked for an online school (Udemy) that was started by Google self-driving genius Thurun.

The start-up Voyage is testing its self-driving taxi service in a gated community of about 4,000 residents where the average age is 76. There's another benefit to testing in a retirement community: It's private property. That means Voyage doesn't have to share ride information with state regulators, freeing it from some bureaucracy. But testing in the community meant different obstacles, like insurers requiring Voyage to have double California's $5 million in coverage funds and to hand over all driving data. To reassure the retirement community, Voyage gave them as much equity as they give to a new hire. That aside, retirees have a lot to gain from self-driving cars. Losing the ability to drive often cuts folks off from the outside world, so it's interesting to see Voyage explore where other self-driving leaders haven't been yet.

WHY IT MATTERS: it makes perfect sense when you think about it: deploy self-driving cars on private property instead of on the open road. Here, the use case is a retirement community. Next I assume it may be on a vacation resort (think self-driving golf carts) or a remote wilderness fishing property (more self driving all-terrain trucks). And why are businesses with large properties not deploying self-driving vehicles? Oops not true they are: Codelco has 4 fully autonomous copper mines in Chile!. Take a few minutes to watch he Voyage experiment video: https://news.voyage.auto/voyages-first-self-driving-car-deployment-29c7688c6a1 or more on mining automation http://sco.lt/4qCRLV 

WHY IT MATTERS: programming has become an essential skill today in all disciplines. Essential to understand how everything works in our world (See the post Software is Eating the World to get background http://sco.lt/8PmkrJ ), but not essential to master it and code for a living. Everyone should know enough to understand the basic principles of software. This tool provides visualization techniques to help understand software code. I wish I had this when I was a student....

WHY IT MATTERS: Looks like physical security may still be required in an age of digital everything.

WHY IT MATTERS: this 3 part blog post explains what blockchain is, provides examples of how to build a solution on ethereum and shares real-life conclusions - plain hard truth, not rose-coloured glass conclusions about the potential of blockchain. It cuts through the hype and provides facts: not many of those around these days. Very useful read. Must read, even for non developers.

WHY IT MATTERS: blockchain technology is great but highlights serious limitations in accounting and regulation that must be addressed rapidly.

WHY IT MATTERS: an excellent 3-part series on Google data centers which explains the different elements that are part of them.

WHY IT MATTERS: this 20min video is a great demonstration of what is now possible with mixed reality headsets along with possible real-life applications for home and the office. More on the Windows blog: msft.social/b9ULwk 

 

Creating and maintaining a platform for reliably producing and deploying machine learning models requires careful orchestration of many components—-a learner for generating models based on training data, modules for analyzing and validating both data as well as models, and finally infrastructure for serving models in production. This becomes particularly challenging when data changes over time and fresh models need to be produced continuously. Unfortunately, such orchestration is often done ad hoc using glue code and custom scripts developed by individual teams for specific use cases, leading to duplicated effort and fragile systems with high technical debt. We present the anatomy of a general-purpose machine learning platform and one implementation of such a platform at Google. By integrating the aforementioned components into one platform, we were able to standardize the components, simplify the platform configuration, and reduce the time to production from the order of months to weeks, while providing platform stability that minimizes service disruptions. We present the case study of one deployment of the platform in the Google Play app store, where the machine learning models are refreshed continuously as new data arrive. Deploying the platform led to reduced custom code, faster experiment cycles, and a 2% increase in app installs resulting from improved data and model analysis.

WHY THIS MATTERS

This article explains the different components that Google had to create in order to make their machine learning tensorFlow system production grade and ensure it could support a software engineering development process. We are entering a brave new world of new tools.

WHY IT MATTERS

This article explains how deep learning neural networks learn to generalize and find patterns in their inputs by initially finding patterns then compressing to forget irrelevant elements and generalize what they've "learned". Well illustrated and relatively simple to understand.

WHY IT MATTERS

Understanding how neural networks work is difficult. This simple tool helps you visualize how they work and change parameters to see their impact on the network quality.

WHY IT MATTERS

Learn from the best online retailers on the best ways to personalize your website and ecommerce.

WHY IT MATTERS

Amazon has been innovating on all fronts but it appears that their prime loyalty program may be the most powerful tool they have in their arsenal. This blog post has tons of very useful metrics about the Prime programme. Other retailers should take note.

WHY IT MATTERS

Grocery shopping is often tedious, as most grocery stores have a slightly different layout. Instacart sends human shoppers to pick orders placed online on their website. Mapping every single one of their thousands of stores is not an option. Instead, they have trained a neural networks on millions of orders to predict the best sort order for their shopping lists. And in the meantime save precious minutes in the order picking process.

WHY IT MATTERS

Big Data is based on 4 key characteristics that have driven its adoption in recent years.

Businesses everywhere are in the process of embracing digital transformation. However, many are looking to the future and the continuing changes it may bring to their industries. Forrester analysts and business representatives from all manner of industries provided insight into continuing digital business developments and what they may mean for every company in the years to come.

WHY IT MATTERS
The article reminds us that digital transformation requires a change in the way people think and act, not just throwing technology at the problem. Always good to be reminded.

WHY IT MATTERS

McKinsey study finds that new digital technologies will transform the job market gradually and explores where these changes may occur first.

WHY IT MATTERS

The article shows that the legal profession is slowly impacted by digital technologies and in particular AI, but for routine tasks and activities. Nevertheless, digital technologies should slowly chip away at the more routine tasks in the coming years.

WHY THIS MATTERS

You have to try this to better understand how AI works. Moreover, the fact that the network runs on your browser is, by itself, quite the testament to the power of deep learning and machine learning to transform every application and device we own. Now go play!

WHY IT MATTERS

NPS has been a great tool to evaluate a company's website "quality" as measured by its customer feedback. Moreover it provides global scores per industry so as to let you compare your performance to your peers. Here are the latest scores.

WHY IT MATTERS

Everyone is looking at data and very often excel does not provide a scalable solution - especially when looking to build dashboard that everyone uses. Here is one: redash.io.

For Google users looking for a free solution, consider DataStudio.

https://datastudio.google.com 

WHY THIS MATTERS

Digital is a state of mind and should infuse everything an organization does, including its annual report. This is a great example of that.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The video shows how technologies can change the retail stores better than any article can. Also read the article: http://sco.lt/8wbsmH 

WHY THIS MATTERS

I find most of my clients struggling to find time and money to implement technologies that have been around for more than 10 years: Internet, Big Data, mobility, cloud computing, etc. When they do make it to implement them in their organizations, it is often too little too late to make a difference with their competition. As Wayne Gretsky famously said, you should "skate to where the puck will be, not where it is". Thus, every company's strategy should have a clear view on AI, blockchain, robots, 3D printing, Internet of Things, etc. Does your strat plan include them?

WHY IT MATTERS

Forrester has recently produced a matrix of disruptive technologies that is worth sharing. More important is the article conclusion where Forrester recommends that cIO act as Venture Capitalists to actively scout new technologies and companies to leverage this innovation for improved competitiveness. This is a radical departure form traditional IT roles and responsibilities which I believe has important benefits in large organizations where All eyes are on the CIO to lead the digital transformation. Unfortunately we are a long way away from this in most organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS

The potential for blockchain to disrupt Financial institutions has been discussed for a few years by techno leaders and bitcoin enthusiasts. What makes this important is that Christine Lagarde, IMF top gun, said it. Take note!

WHY IT MATTERS

AI is more pervasive than we may think, as evidenced by this article reviewing tools that leverage AI to deliver their goods.

WHY IT MATTERS

Great article that highlights the issues that VCs and corporations face when raising money from Initial Coin Offerings - ICOs - that have been very popular recently. In particular questions such as how do you account for those securities and how are board member responsible in case of problems. Fun times ahead in this field....

WHY IT MATTERS

Self driving vehicles may mark the next revolution in transportation and recent legal battles between Google and Uber show just how nasty competition can get when high rewards are achievable.

WHY IT MATTERS

Retail stores are transforming to become more digital friendly, mobile-friendly, omni-channel enabled, and basically more like an Apple Store than a Costco warehouse - more service, less aisles with shelves.

WHY IT MATTERS

The article provides an overview of government initiatives to create their own digital currencies based on the blockchain, with Japan planning the J-Coin to launch by 2020. The article highlights various advantages that digital currencies would have for central banks, along with come of the concerns.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/ca0b3892-a201-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2 

WHY IT MATTERS

Doesn't matter, just fun to watch and wonder where we'll be a few years from now playing ping pong (and beer pong ;-) with people half way across the world... ;-)

Cette technologie très puissante est importante à comprendre parce qu’elle pourrait s’immiscer dans bien des domaines de notre quotidien à l’avenir. Et si les commoners s’y intéressaient dès le départ au lieu de laisser les banques et les assurances produire des enclosures à grand échelle? Et s’il y avait des usages de blockchain en commun à construire sans perdre de temps? Pour bien comprendre, il faut tout d’abord se familiariser avec l’une des applications les plus connues et l’une des premières de Blockchain : Bitcoin. Bitcoin est une application de Blockchain à la monnaie mais le principe d’un historique décentralisé de transaction peut s’appliquer à bien d’autres domaines. En gros il permet d’authentifier des échanges de manière fiable et décentralisée.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I find many of my colleagues struggle to understand blockchain. This article, and the accompanying slideshare, provide a very good introduction.

WHY IT MATTERS

This article from McKinsey provides an overview of the investments, improvements and priorities in AI and machine learning as of mid 2017.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Thoughtworks is a leading company in software development that employs some of the best minds in the field, including Martin Fowler. They release a technology radar at regular intervals which has been a reference for me along the years to stay abreast of new developments in software engineering. In this article, TW describes their radar methodology and recommend building 2 versions to help guide your career and your company's future. Must read.

WHY IT MATTERS

Very simple explanation of generative design with lots of practical examples of its use.

WHY IT MATTERS

Companies are starting to use generative design algorithms based on AI technologies to explore thousands of design options rapidly. Autodesk presents here its dreamcatcher project and describe how that is possible.

WHY IT MATTERS

We think of AI having an impact in fields that require human repetitive work but rarely think it applies to creative activities such as web or logo design. Well of course, you are wrong and this paper explains why with a number of very powerful examples and tools.

WHY IT MATTERS

The 30 min video provides a good overview of the potential impact of AI in certain industries. A great example comes from the field of law, where law assistants may soon be replaced (enhanced?) by AI tools such as Ailira http://www.ailira.com/ 

WHY THIS MATTERS

This is the original document from 1993 that discusses the Singularity concept - with great examples. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Google announced the project in 2014 and now ships its first product. This may usher the dawn of an era for connected and digitally-enabled clothing. It will be interesting to findout about the technology and the possible applications. Looking at the video I can't help but wonder if this particular jacket will be useful, considering the fact that we all carry cellphones that allow you to do pretty much everything in this video. Here again, I believe this technology may be more appropriate and useful in business contexts rather than personal ones. We'll see.

WHY IT MATTERS

No surprise in this list but the hype cycle is always a great tool to visualize and spark strategy discussions around emerging technologies.

WHY IT MATTERS

AI is entering the financial industry in droves and as this article from McKinsey shows, using digital technology may become essential to survive for many organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS

AI will have such a profound impact on our society that it may represent the biggest threat and the biggest opportunity for the future. SoftBank has been clear about making this its top investment priority in the coming years. Others should take notice.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Different way to visualize trends using twitter data.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

First, it is from the head of the largest retailer on the planet. Second, it draws from insights - and a great video - from the World Economic Forum.

Are you ready for the next wave of emerging technologies? It includes the “essential eight”: Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, 3D printing, augmented reality (AR), drones, blockchain and virtual reality. While these emerging tools hold promise, they must compete for attention with today’s game changers, such as cloud, mobile and analytics.

As it stands, the most meaningful investments in emerging technology today are flowing to IoT and AI. Over the next three years, growth is expected across a broader spectrum of technologies, with robotics, AR and drone technologies poised for the greatest near-term growth. As far as disruption goes, 28% of Canadian executives say AI will shake up their industries and businesses over the next five years. And IoT (52%) and robotics (15%) are seen as holding the most potential to cut costs.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Investments in new technologies always compete with more traditional ones and the future appears to bring a whole set of new areas that will require attention and $$. Which one to prioritize is the question your strategic plan should answer.

See PWC digital IQ report here: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/digital-iq/assets/pwc-digital-iq-report.pdf 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There really seems to be a perfect storm brewing in the back office of most organizations with IOT + AI + big data + blockchain + AR-VR. Watch out for major disruptions in the coming years with new players that will leverage tech to make back office more efficient.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I remember a time in the late 90s early 2000s when cutting cost meant outsourcing to India. Today, it seems the trend is moving to digital. This stat from BofA is quite clear: digital saves costs.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you have a Google Suite (GSuite, Google apps) account, then you will want to implement all 7 recommendations in this article - especially #1.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Great recommendations for any CIO.

What is artificial intelligence? Why is it important? Why is everyone talking about it all of a sudden? If you skim online headlines, you’ll likely read about how AI is powering Amazon and Google’s virtual assistants, or how it’s taking all the jobs (debatable), but not a good explanation of what it is (or whether the robots are going to take over). We’re here to help with this living document, a plain-English guide to AI that will be updated and refined as the field evolves and important concepts emerge.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Always very well written and informative articles, this one provides a good summary in simple terms.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Pokemon GO was an early glimpse into this whole new world of augmented reality. Looks like we will see a deluge of apps in the coming months.

A small company called Neodriven, led by former Tesla employee Matt Schulwitz, is announcing a product of the same name that goes on sale today for $1,495. It’s a modified version of the Comma Neo plans that Hotz open sourced, but if Schulwitz has his way, it will be an early player in that revolution.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

You can now buy hardware to turn your car into a self driving car. Makes me think of the Homebrew project where Jobs and Wozniak created the first Apple computer and started a revolution. Guys at comma.ai and neodriven.com are doing the same and it seems that the technology is there to enable this revolution: 3G/LTE, GPS, mobile phone, universal car interface, AI and image recognition. Interesting years ahead.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is a technical article that sheds light onto a potential security risk that all digital professionals should be aware of as we generally assume that SSL and HTTPS will keep our conversations secure over the Internet.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Mobile is eating the world and the stats tend to prove that this is true. Companies that do not have a mobile strategy or support mobile on their websites are at risk of loosing leads, clients, customers, etc.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This looks like a proof of concept but it shows that autonomous machines should become a reality in the agriculture business sooner than we may think. Advances in self-driving technology, AI, networking, mobile devices, etc. have contributed to make this possible.

Other more generic applications such as harvesting barley also been introduced: http://fmcs.digital/blog/autonomous-robots-plant-tend-and-harvest-entire-crop-of-barley/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This looks like a proof of concept but it shows that autonomous machines should become a reality in the agriculture business sooner than we may think. Advances in self-driving technology, AI, networking, mobile devices, etc. have contributed to make this possible.

Other more specialized applications such as weed removal have also been introduced: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/bosch-deepfield-robotics-weed-control 

As noted in yesterday’s breaking story on this breach, the Web site that Equifax advertised as the place where concerned Americans could go to find out whether they were impacted by this breach — equifaxsecurity2017.com — is completely broken at best, and little more than a stalling tactic or sham at worst.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Equifax monopoly should end because there are so many ways to do the same work they do in more transparent and rapid fashion. Anyone that has had to request an equifax score or report can testify how long and tedious the process is. The way they have handled the breach is absolutely unprofessional and hopefully a sign that their time has come - as evidenced by this report from Krebs and the fact their stock is being crushed.

http://www.businessinsider.com/equifax-stock-price-options-traders-on-further-decline-after-security-breach-2017-9 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The chart says it all: walmart investments in ecommerce have paid off with 60% growth in recent months. 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

IBM has been an early adopter of blockchain technology and now videos such as this one begin to show where this new technology can be used in real businesses. Here the video presents blockchain in use for grocery food traceability from harvest to store shelves, in the grocery industry. The video is not great quality but the content is interesting.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

An in depth article about the Castle, Google self-driving car testing facility in a remote area of California. Full of interesting information about what it takes to get a car to drive with confidence on world scenarios.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Google self driving cars rely on human drivers to drive millions of miles and learn the basic driving skills. This story explains how Google has built a self-driving car simulation software called Carcraft to go one step further and use real-world roads into millions of different driving scenarios. 

What is important here is the fact that a machine - here the simulator - can learn from mistakes and improbable driving scenarios and then *instantly* share that knowledge with *all* of the self driving cars in Google's fleet. Humans cannot do that. And this means computers will learn skills - driving, medecine, accounting, law, etc. - extremely fast in the coming years. Be ready to see self driving cars on the road much sooner than you expect.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Full of great stats and trends, this health check provides tips, tools and metrics for eCommerce site operators that should not be missed.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Full of great stats and trends, this health check provides tips, tools and metrics for eCommerce site operators that should not be missed.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Not only does this experiment show potential for AI to enter the protected world of human creativity, it also signals we soon will be able to go from idea to design to production to sales using AI, automated 3D printing factories and eCommerce. Will we soon see a fully autonomous fashion retailer with no designers, no production staff, no stores that create and sell original clothing?

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Full of great stats and trends, this health check provides tips, tools and metrics for eCommerce site operators that should not be missed.

First impressions of new augmented reality apps coming to the iPhone and iPad. And Apple seems confident that AR will be the next big thing. In fact, Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of Marketing, calls it a "gigantic deal."

"This is this dream of things you wanted to do as far as mixing the digital world into the real world," he told CNN Tech. "It has so many applications -- from shopping and entertainment to things we haven't even thought about -- but it's been unattainable."

In Apple's implementation, augmented reality requires you to hold up your phone or tablet to see virtual objects implanted into the real world. For example, the new IKEA Place app -- which will become available with the launch of iOS 11 -- allows you to select furniture from its website and place it virtually within a room. So you can try before you buy.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Apple controls both hardware and software and has been showing demos of very incredible AR solutions. Since Pokemon GO craze last summer there has not been much done yet. And the GO frenzy was done on Android devices with no particular AR capabilities. The next iPhone hard+soft will have that baked in. So I expect the launch of the next iPhone in September to bring a mini-revolution in the form of AR-enabled shopping, AR-enabled snapchats, AR-enabled Facebook, etc. etc. 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Full of great stats and trends, this health check provides tips, tools and metrics for eCommerce site operators that should not be missed.

McKinsey’s summary of leading FinTech articles is a fantastic summary of the issues facing global financial services players.  There are several sections in this 80-pager that we believe our clients will find the most value….

  • Cutting through the noise (page 6) – this is a noisy space with many old and new entrants laying claim to a place in FinTech land.  This section of the report truly cuts through the noise and presents a very clear view of the primary value drivers for F/S players and love the “6 Digital Imperatives” chart on page 12. 
  • Helping Incumbents not Disrupting (page 24) – the notion of cooperation vs. competition between FinTechs and Incumbents has emerged as a more realistic future for the industry.  Canada has a unique F/S model with large, dominant and highly successful incumbents controlling the vast majority of clients and assets.  We see cooperation as being the only role that we will play as a FinTech provider and this seems to be an increasingly popular position in our industry.
  • Banking on the Cloud (page 49) – the movement from resistance to acceptance and now to adoption of cloud apps is accelerating.  In our business, revenues generated from Cloud services have increased from 10% to 50% in just 3 years and the discussions that we have had with clients around “resistance” to the Cloud have virtually disappeared.  Innovation at a higher pace and lower cost is becoming table stakes and embracing this technology is now an afterthought.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Fintechs are paving the way for the transformation of a very slow moving industry - the Financial sector. We should all learn from this example in other industries that move slowly, for example grocery.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Simply amazing what the applications of AR are!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I found the diagram to be quite interesting in that machine learning algorithms approach problems in a completely different way than humans do. Mostly because AI and machine do not "understand" the problem they are addressing but are simply applying rigorous analysis of data. In any case, the link between the two approaches is very very interesting.

See this recent blog post post that explains a bit more what I mean by machines don'T understand the problems they solve: http://fmcs.digital/blog/todai-robot-ai-project-performed-in-top-20-on-entrance-exam-u-tokyo-without-understanding-a-thing/

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Feels like AI is everywhere these days. True. This list may help you draw the same conclusion I have: look at any task that requires analysis of large volume of data or visual images or sound and there is a good chance AI will be able to help improve them.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Wellness, fitness and mindfulness are more important now than ever it seems. This study tends to agree and provide some great examples.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The video is short and provides very good explanation of how the AI can pass the University entrance exam without understanding a thing. Nevertheless, I find this amazing because once AI learns something, or acquires a skill, *every* other AI can benefit from it. As opposed to humans who *individually* have to learn new things for themselves. Thus, we can expect AI to learn at an exponential rate and become truly "intelligent" very rapidly. This example should be a wake up call for all of us.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Was just a question of time before it happened. Everything is connected and the trend is clear that nothing will escape the insertion of software into all kinds of devices. You have to know which ones are safe and which ones are not.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Tata Consulting CTO Franck Diana consistently raises interesting trends and forecasts. here, I find useful his mapping of well-being to innovation (mostly technological innovations that fall in the digital transformation/disruption world). I plan to reuse this grid in my work and analysis.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The ultimate test for a machine to determine if it is human is the Turing test where a computer can hold a conversation and you cannot tell whether it is a human or a machine behind the screen. These apps are bringing us closer to that possibility...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Cool or freaky? Good question! Nevertheless, we can expect more of the same in the coming years with things like artificial intelligence chatbots that let you have conversations with your dead parents, or friends.

Also see

wired on keeping dad alive: https://www.wired.com/story/a-sons-race-to-give-his-dying-father-artificial-immortality/

replika LUKA app: https://qz.com/se/machines-with-brains/1018126/lukas-replika-chatbot-creates-a-digital-representation-of-you-the-more-you-interact-with-it/ 

Technical debt is something that every technology company, large or small, public or private, has to deal with. Technical debt accumulates in a dizzying variety of ways as you build software. Sometimes it accrues through explicit, individual compromise: you deliberately choose to do something in a non-sustainable way in order to get something to market more quickly and tell yourself that you'll clean things up later. Sometimes technical debt accrues because building technology is hard, people make mistakes, and even the cleverest engineers can't predict the future which means that sometimes you build the wrong things. And sometimes technical debt accrues because your teams think mostly about how to ship stuff more quickly, not about the messes that they are making in service of their haste. Individually, it can be difficult to explain why you need to take the extra time to build something "the right way" when what seems like the whole world is anxiously waiting for you to be done.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital is a new field, computer engineering also is - 50 years old almost - and the concept of technical has become fundamental in all my architecture and strategy discussions recently. This is because most organizations have been building systems for years now and are faced with issues that can best be described as the result of technical debt. This article is a nice description of what TD is, how difficult it is to deal with and how positive it is when it is paid back.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With bitcoin value at 4K$ USD, companies that specialize in dedicated hardware to mine bitcoins have become more profitable than ever. I find it interesting that this one, bitmain, which appear to be the leader, is Chinese. Morever, one should notice that mining bitcoin is very similar to cracking password or encryption, but it seems that these devices cannot be used for that purpose (https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/62800/is-it-possible-to-use-bitcoin-miners-to-decrypt-files-communication ) . however, the expertise can easily be refocussed on password cracking of encryption.

In What’s In a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot, KrebsOnSecurity told the story of a reader whose friend posted a picture of a boarding pass on Facebook. The reader was able to use the airline’s Web site combined with data printed on the boarding pass to discover additional information about his friend. That data included details of future travel, the ability to alter or cancel upcoming flights, and a key component need to access the traveler’s frequent flyer account. 

More recently, security researcher Michal Špaček gave a talk at a conference in the Czech Republic in which he explained how a few details gleaned from a picture of a friend’s boarding pass posted online give him the ability to view passport information on his friend via the airline’s Web site, and to change the password for another friend’s United Airlines frequent flyer account.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This article provides detailed examples and further reading links that shows why it is never a good idea to post pictures of barcodes on social networks. They can be read and the information they contain extracted - potentially revealing personal information.

You have been warned.

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I wrote about the lack of privacy due to ad trackers and beacons many times in the past. Here is another application that shows how they can be used to identity your bitcoin transactions. The article explains why this is so and how privacy can be kept on the blockchain.

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AI will impact the jobs market in all industries, including banking, Finance, legal, and accounting. As highlighted here, it may help focus humans on higher value activities but may - will? - also lead to job cuts. High paying job cuts. Watch out for possible human anger against the machines in the coming years.

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AI is moving into back office operations in a big way, replace "traditional" human activities, reducing costs and improving performance. AI is being applied to receivables, credit scoring, customer service, compliance, trading and many other activities.

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Fintechs are paving the way for the transformation of a very slow moving industry - the Financial sector. We should all learn from this example in other industries that move slowly, for example grocery.

 

The accompanying report to this article is also full of interesting background information: http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/financial%20services/our%20insights/bracing%20for%20seven%20critical%20changes%20as%20fintech%20matures/fintechnicolor-the-new-picture-in-finance.ashx 

In October 2016, in a big milestone for artificial intelligence, Microsoft unveiled a system that can transcribe the contents of a phone call as well or better than human professionals.

But while Microsoft's system had fewer transcription errors than the average human transcriptionist, it still couldn't best a team of trained humans. So, the world of academia fired back with a new challenge: Lower the error rate to below what human teams can do. 

Now Microsoft has done just that.

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Speech recognition is most important for business tasks and new computer interfaces that are small and pervasive (cannot fit a keyboard and mouse on a watch). This new research shows that it is possible to get 5.1% error rates on transcribing phone conversations. This is great but not yet error-free : expect more research to improve this extremely fast though..

This ushers in an era where your cell phone will record everything you say in a meeting - or elsewhere - and transcribe it for you to search the text for reference or recall the actual audio to show proof. Imagine how useful that can be when listening to a conference or class and take notes for you!

Direct links to the Microsoft blog post and report are here:

blog: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/microsoft-researchers-achieve-new-conversational-speech-recognition-milestone/ 

report: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ms_swbd17-2.pdf 

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Good tools are essential to be at your best. I find this list useful, along with the tool roundup the company provides at regular intervals: http://www.stacklist.com/articles/new-tools-roundup-13/ 

 

I wrote about the betapage.co tool roundup in the past, a similar reference: http://sco.lt/73Og3F 

Just got the kindle version for reading during vacation...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation often starts with innovative new technologies. This technologies has been in development for many years and thus we should keep them on our radars for when they spring out of the lab as commercial products. Not just yet though but keep that in mind when strategic plans are being drawn...

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Fake news is difficult to debunk because we are trained to believe what we read has been vetted and checked for validity. Images and videos are even worse because, until now, it was difficult to alter them in any meaningful way. Technologies like this may change that forever. Watch out for elections 202 in the USA.

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A relatively technical explanation of the methods used to track people on the web.

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github is a software engineering tool for software version control that has been leveraged for large open source projects. It has also been used to co-edit documents with a high level of version control and large population of authors. I wanted to share this - along with previous posts on software engineering blogs and 2 factor authentication support - as a great example of how digital can help transform the way people work. Unfortunately I find that organizations have yet to become aware of this great tool, maybe because it is a little bit too geeky for non technical employees.

What do you think? Are there more user friendly tools like this?

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Predicting the future is a difficult endeavour and this paper very eloquently shows us why. Must read.

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Discusses different solutions to remain anonymous online, from TOR to bitcoins.

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The report provides a good overview of key trends in eCommerce today with some useful trends and survey data.

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Devices that listen - and potentially record - our every word are becoming ubiquitous. Think of Apple siri (smartphone) or Amazon Echo (home device). We are entering a new age where everything we say - or do, when devices not only listen but record our every moves, think of the Google Glass (wearable) or the network of cameras that line the streets of London and other cities - can be held against us and create a true surveillance state a-la 1984. Pundits will likely say that the benefits highlighted in this article are worth the loss of privacy for increased security. Not certain what to think about this just yet...

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AI has huge potential but it appears that for now humans must teach machines. This article and the attached video both show what it takes to crowdsource that learning from thousand of individuals and their computer. Basically using the most basic human functions - vision and object recognition - to tell computers what they should see on an image.

Developers have built more than 15,000 skills with the Alexa Skills Kit. Explore the stories behind some of these innovations, then start building your own skill. If you’re serious about getting into building voice UIs, we’d like to help you explore. 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Alexa is a nice little gadget that uses artificial intelligence to understand language and answer questions. It has a vocabulary and skills but what may set it apart is the ability for anybody to develop new skills for the device. Any developer can add features to the devices which means that it may learn at an exponential rate. 15000 skills today is impressive but not yet amazing - although most skills are gadget. But think back to the iPhone 10 years ago and its few apps. Now consider the millions of apps on the Apple store today and you may also agree with me that this is important...

Ten years ago, when we first got word of your gift to the foundation, we were speechless. It was the biggest single gift anyone ever gave anybody for anything. We knew we owed you a fantastic return on your investment.

Of course, philanthropy isn’t like business. We don’t have sales and profits to show you. There’s no share price to report. But there are numbers we watch closely to guide our work and measure our progress.

Our goals are shared by many other organizations working to save and improve lives. We’re all in this together. So most of the numbers we look at don’t focus just on how we as a foundation are doing, but on how the world is doing—and how we see our role.

Warren, your gift doubled the foundation’s resources. It’s allowed us to expand our work in US education, support smallholder farmers, and create financial services for the poor. But in this letter, we’re going to tell you about our work in global health—because that was the starting point of our philanthropy, and it’s the majority of what we do.

We’ll tell the story through the numbers that drive our work. Let’s start with the most important one.

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We sometimes need to be reminded that some people with money - lots of money - are doing good things for the world. This annual letter from bill & melinda gates should give us hope in the future.

Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. You can run it against any web page, public or requiring authentication. It has audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, and more.

You can run Lighthouse as a Chrome Extension, from the command line, or as a Node module. You give Lighthouse a URL to audit, it runs a series of audits against the page, and then it generates a report on how well the page did. From there, use the failing audits as indicators on how to improve the page. Each audit has a reference doc explaining why the audit is important, as well as how to fix it.

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Digital transformation occurs via the web, more often than not. Google has been giving the web developer community amazing tools, from the pagespeed solutions to the chrome browser developer tools. Now lighthouse is a new solution to help us developers in our quest to build fast and efficient web solutions. Check it out.

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We often hear of AI and machine learning using neural networks and deep learning algorithms. In parallel, there are many other efforts being deployed to understand the brain to try and mimic it. This is a series of articles in IEEE Spectrum that provide just the right level of technical insights to help you understand where we stand on the matter. Many hours of interesting reading ahead!

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Digital transformation often comes from startup innovations. So maps like those are very good to know where opportunities to improve lie.

Here is the list of 100+ tools which includes human resources management, customer relationship management, schedule a meeting etc. for managing small & medium size business effectively.

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Says they are tools for startups but I believe they should be leveraged by companies of all size.

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We must change the way we are and behave in the age of machine intelligence and this article provides great insights.

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Do I really need to say why. Just read it.

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A great reference for all the activity in the car industry.

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This is a research project that exposes the privacy vulnerabilities of our mobile phones and the apps we install on them...

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This video offers a glimpse into our collective future as we will soon all be looking to expand our capabilities with implants of different sorts. 

Very useful tricks to know, can save you tons of time.

A new study by Forbes Insights and Alfresco explores what separates the winners from the losers in the digital economy. 

The research concludes that there are three levers business and IT leaders can employ for successful digital transformation, which catalyze a rethinking of the way organizations embrace the power of business technology:

  • Design thinking—where a relentless focus upon optimizing user experience and customer experience guides all business technology decisions.
  • Open thinking—in which innovation from both inside and outside the organization is encouraged to drive new initiatives.
  • Platform thinking—where the desired outcome of systems and solution deployment is to build an ecosystem of partners and customers that exchange capabilities and data in a manner that creates added value.

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This survey confirms what others (McKinsey, Accenture, etc.) have proven before: the leaders of digital transformation leverage digital tools to rethink the way they do business instead of simply digitizing their existing one. To do so it takes amazing leaders able to innovate and risk by reviewing how they design their products and cooperate with others.

 

Full report: https://i.forbesimg.com/forbesinsights/alfresco_rethink/The_Great_Rethink.pdf

 

Always good to know...

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Humans may not be so smart after all if it takes a few simple neural nets to start to create new languages and communicate. The article is just a teaser, if you want to know more you have to go the the Facebook research group blog to read the full thing.

https://research.fb.com/category/facebook-ai-research-fair/

https://code.facebook.com/posts/1686672014972296/deal-or-no-deal-training-ai-bots-to-negotiate/

https://code.facebook.com/posts/266433647155520/parlai-a-new-software-platform-for-dialog-research/

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Only thing protecting you and your privacy is your password - and 2 factor authentication.  Do it!

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This is similar to the old pleaserobme.com website that roamed facebook statuses to identify people that may be out of their homes (http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/pleaserobme/). OF course this is also possible with apps that track your position on your phone. Be aware!

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This is the basics you need to know: incognito mode, VPNs and TOR network. If you don't read this.

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This article explains key fundamental concepts about intelligence and provides real-world examples in the context of self-driving cars.

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Investment firms tend to be very traditional in their approach. This one appears to be embracing the digital transformation and making very insightful research that - from what they claim - guides their investments. Great idea. Now we'll see if their assumptions prove right and generate more returns than other investment guidance. I have a feeling it will.

 

Topics covered: 3D printing, additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, automation, autonomous taxis, autonomous vehicles, bitcoin, blockchain, CRISPR, cryptocurrency, deep learning, dna sequencing, fintech, genomics, machine learning, mobile, robotics, shared autonomous vehicles

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

You have to trust companies and manufacturers with your private data to interact with them or use their products. What are people who distrust those companies doing? Not buying on Amazon? Not buying a smartphone? I guess not.

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Internet is a global resource and often we forget that there is a cost to delivering web pages across the world. This paper from Dropbox shows just how important it is to use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for websites.

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The research paper last sentence may be the most important. IT states: "...our model shows transfer learning from
tasks with a large amount of available data to ones where the data is limited". Much like with humans where people with more knowledge and general culture often are able to apply knowledge form one area to another. This appears fundamental in getting better AI solutions.

Moreover the paper shows how complex neural networks have become and we can expect even more complexity in the future. Direct link to the research paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.05137.pdf 

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With this week's huge announcement of Amazon buying Whole Foods, this report from McKinsey key consultants in the UK is most important to read as it gives context to the news. Moreover, UK is the most advanced country in the world for online grocery ecommerce so we should listen to them as they are early best practice leaders.

 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/amazons-whole-foods-new-ecommerce-paradigm/ 

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Patterns are a way to learn from the best and not reinvent the wheel. With the growing popularity of microservices over plain SOA, I found this reference extremely interesting. and useful.

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I rarely comment on news unless they have the potential to mark an inflection point. I believe this is one of those news because it brings Amazon 400+ prime store locations and a grocery footprint to propel its Amazon Fresh service. 

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I appreciate the thought leadership of Capgemini around digital disruption and find this year they have tapped into an important concept: the parallel digital universe. Can't wait to dive into the different papers in this report.

Moreover, the concept of having digital twins is one that I have written about in the past as well: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/ 

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eCommerce Achille's heal is delivery cost - the last mile. Any company that solves this problem wins the eCommerce game. Amazon has been experimenting in this field for years and it looks like some are really popular with customers and beneficial to Amazon. Case in point: Amazon Prime members spend 5x more than other consumers because they feel shipping is "free". Amazon grocery delivery will put thousands of trucks on the road effectively making delivery cost marginal for Amazon. And here, with repetitive restocking, delivery costs can be reduced by shipping in bulk and high volume.

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Mining is dangerous and very repetitive, making it a prime candidate for robots and automation. A mine in Chile by Codelco has recently been converted to fully automated and now this mine in Northern Quebec. Expect AI, robots, self driving things and other new technologies to take certain industries by storm, even more traditional ones like mining.

Also see this article on benefits of drones and driverless vehicles in mining: http://www.machinedesign.com/constructionoff-road/drones-come-down-earth-ugvs-and-driverless-vehicles-reality 

Such consistency leads to higher efficiency, lower operating costs, and better overall productivity. According to University of British Columbia, benefits of autonomous hauling systems (AHS) include:

  • Increase of 15 to 20% in output
  • Decrease of 10 to 15% in fuel consumption
  • 5 to 15% decrease in tire wear
  • Truck use (up-time) increases 10 to 20%
  • Maintenance costs drop 8%
  • Eliminating breaks and other productivity improvements let the trucks work two to four more hours per day.

This could significantly raise a mine’s output, or permit fewer trucks and a smaller fleet.

 

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AI is infiltrating all industries and domains. Security is one of the fields where AI may provide the most value because protection relies so much on flexible solutions that can adapt - which is where AI is most useful.

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So much money is being invested by so many large companies that it is difficult not to expect great things from AR and VR in the coming years. If you go beyond the hype on gaming gears and being able to watch a virtual TV on the wall, every corporate strategy should include at least evaluations of the technologies to help improve manufacturing, repairs, or other professional activities. 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

AI startups funding shows that the investments has been growing steadily in the past 4 years and that every industry will be affected by the technology.

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Digital and miniaturization bring more sensors into the real world to help digitize it. Google street view did it with taking pictures to overlay on google maps but why not add additional sensors to help us "see" more of the real world in the digital world? That is exactly what is happening here and I expect more as we've seen with other projects that embed sensors for pollution, wifi and radio waves, radioactive detectors, blast detectors and I assume many others. How can this idea be applied elsewhere in factories and manufacturing plants? Could we use these sensors and have our human workers carry them to map out, in real-time, key environmental factors?

Interest in auto tech has risen dramatically in recent years. Technology has always been a staple of automotive research and development, but the past few years have seen a technology arms race as advances in IoT and artificial intelligence disciplines filter down to the automotive sector. Startup investment has risen dramatically as concepts once reserved for science fiction (like autonomous vehicles) move towards commercialization.

We analyzed the explosion of activity in the auto tech space using the CB Insights platform in our full webinar.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Automobile tech combines so many of the high tech solutions and technologies - from AI to new batteries - that it makes for a great case study to understand how much transportation will change in the coming years. And with it, the possibility of business transformation from eCommerce delivery to supply chain improvements to employee getting to work with little stress and no traffic jams.

I believe they were trying to query an intentionally unregistered domain which would appear registered in certain sandbox environments, then once they see the domain responding, they know they’re in a sandbox the malware exits to prevent further analysis. This technique isn’t unprecedented and is actually used by the Necurs trojan (they will query 5 totally random domains and if they all return the same IP, it will exit); however, because WannaCrypt used a single hardcoded domain, my registration of it caused all infections globally to believe they were inside a sandbox and exit…thus we initially unintentionally prevented the spread and and further ransoming of computers infected with this malware. Of course now that we are aware of this, we will continue to host the domain to prevent any further infections from this sample.

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Every system has its flaws, even malware and viruses. You just have to find them. This guy did and managed to stop a recent very bad version called WannaCrypt and this his explanation of how he did it. Fascinating read.

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This is one of the ways eCommerce will evolve in the near future: robotization. Orders are prepared automatically, without humans touching them. Even for grocery. Especially for grocery. Because it is a high volume, low margin operation, grocery mandates automated preparation. Of course, this level of investment can only be afforded at very high volume, which is the case in the UK where Ocado's warehouses like this can deliver 190,000 orders every week. No other country has this level of grocery eCommerce but when they do (think Amazon Fresh in the US), robotic warehouses like this will become mandatory to stay in business.

The last missing link will remain, of course, the last mile: delivery. There, self driving cars and drones may offer a solution.

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This article provides a short summary of this new book, homo prospectus. It sheds light into how our brain works and why it is in fact prediction machine, always predicting the future. 

 

I wrote about a similar book in the past, On Intelligence, which I also strongly recommend.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/on-intelligence-mustread-to-understand-frontal-cortex-architecture-what-makes-us-intelligent/ 

 

For more on intelligence posts I wrote, look here: http://fmcs.digital/blog/tag/intelligence/ 

The most anticipated slide deck of the year is here. Key takeaways:

  • Global smartphone growth is slowing: Smartphone shipments grew 3 percent year over year last year, versus 10 percent the year before. This is in addition to continued slowing internet growth, which Meeker discussed last year.
  • Voice is beginning to replace typing in online queries. Twenty percent of mobile queries were made via voice in 2016, while accuracy is now about 95 percent.
  • In 10 years, Netflix went from 0 to more than 30 percent of home entertainment revenue in the U.S. This is happening while TV viewership continues to decline.
  • Entrepreneurs are often fans of gaming, Meeker said, quoting Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and Mark Zuckerberg. Global interactive gaming is becoming mainstream, with 2.6 billion gamers in 2017 versus 100 million in 1995. Global gaming revenue is estimated to be around $100 billion in 2016, and China is now the top market for interactive gaming.
  • China remains a fascinating market, with huge growth in mobile services and payments and services like on-demand bike sharing. (More here: The highlights of Meeker's China slides.)
  • While internet growth is slowing globally, that’s not the case in India, the fastest growing large economy. The number of internet users in India grew more than 28 percent in 2016. That’s only 27 percent online penetration, which means there’s lots of room for internet usership to grow. Mobile internet usage is growing as the cost of bandwidth declines. (More here: The highlights of Meeker's India slides.)
  • In the U.S. in 2016, 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies were founded by first- or second-generation Americans and are responsible for 1.5 million employees. Those companies include tech titans Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook.
  • Healthcare: Wearables are gaining adoption with about 25 percent of Americans owning one, up 12 percent from 2016. Leading tech brands are well-positioned in the digital health market, with 60 percent of consumers willing to share their health data with the likes of Google in 2016.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is an annual bag of goodies.

Highlight #1: retail stores are closing at record pace while Amazon opens stores. This is such a huge trend because it transforms stores from a mini-warehouse into something else: a destination for experience, service, and training. Think Apple store with the highest sales per square foot, genius bar, classes and a showroom. Amazon has pushed its Amazon GO, no lines, no registers concept and it is rolling it out slowly. This is just the beginning...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

To be in full control of our private information may be the holly grail of the Internet today. This new technology appears to solve the problem and provide a solution for all of us. For the moment in trial for developers, I can't wait to try it out....

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Startups are truly changing the world and Buffer's transparency experiment has been a leader in this field that I've followed since the beginning. It is great to see it all here in one long timeline. For those that have not tracked this over time this is a great way to catch up!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The report provides both positive and negative case studies on companies that have improved user and customer experience to derive business value. Very useful insights.

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Big Data is not a buzzword so much anymore, quickly being replace by AI. But in reality, companies that are applying big data concepts have seen tremendous improvements.

The link is for 10 case studies, here is the link for the 37: https://www.businessesgrow.com/2016/12/06/big-data-case-studies/ 

 

Engineers at MIT have designed a workout suit that responds to your body heat, according to a study published last week in Science Advances. The clothing, made from latex, is covered with thumbnail- to finger-sized ventilating flaps that open and close depending on how much heat your body puts out. But what's controlling the flaps isn't something you'll find weaved into your usual workout gear -- it's bacteria.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

A good digital strategy should now include smart fabrics and garments as they will become part of the trade in years to come. More leading edge companies should look at fabrics embedded with living organisms, motors and all kinds of electronics to improve confort, track progress or fatigue, reduce cleaning needs, and even, maybe, look better.

 

This article is part of a larger discussion on smart fabrics. Read more here: https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/23/the-future-of-fashion-and-technology/ 

Startup ecosystems can be fragmented, competitive, and hidden to newcomers, which is detrimental for local startups and community growth. The Startup Ecosystem Canvas seeks to provide local entrepreneurs with a clear list of resources for every stage of their startup journey, and outline a basic framework for communities to map their ecosystem.

With applications for the Montreal Founder Institute coming to a close, we are excited to release the Montreal Startup Ecosystem Canvas, which is currently in Draft v1 below! It was developed by the Montreal Founder Institute and local leader Sergio Escobar.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

What a great idea: to share in one place all the local Montreal support that startups have access to. I wonder why that has not been done before? Nevertheless, great idea and impressed by the number of resources out there...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

So many people tell me that they are not on Facebook because they want to keep their privacy. This is another proof that privacy does not exist anymore and that there is no line between online and real-world. Please all be aware and try to put into practice the tips I share during my talks on me.com and the management of your digital twin. for more, read these:

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Finding the right partner for digital implementations is key to any project success. Here McKinsey proposes criteria to help select the best ones but also how to design a process to ensure it can be managed globally in the organization.

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I usually repost those things around new years, with all the predictions etc. but this list seemed to me so appropriate and so true that I wanted to share now.

This report lays out the current state of AI for business, describes primary and emerging use cases, and states the risks, opportunities and organizational considerations that businesses are facing. It concludes with recommendations for companies thinking about applying AI to their own organizations, and a look at some of the business, legal and technical trends that are likely to shape the future.

Key Findings

  1. When it comes to use cases, narrow and clear is better than new and shiny. Some of the most promising uses of AI today are highly specialized and highly vertical — from farming, to self-driving cars, to predictive analytics and precision medicine. In many cases, the most successful deployments will identify buying signals and churn signals and automate complex processes.
  2. AI will become a forcing function for an organizational data strategy. AI learns from vast amounts of data. Clean, accessible data is the foundation upon which successful AI is built. This means that data availability and accessibility should be early considerations when determining where to build, and where not to build, AI into systems.
  3. Ultimately, the opportunity (and risk) of systems based on machine learning is in their ability to sense, communicate, learn, act and adapt over time, and to connect with other systems.  It’s not just about devices that will play a song or order tickets to a concert.
  4. Governance, privacy, ethics, and trust are critical to the customer experience. Even with a relatively “narrow” AI, it’s important to understand that enabling machines to learn and act based on data and past experience has significant implications. It’s critical to scenario plan for AI deployments — not only for the legal and regulatory reasons, but to protect and enhance the customer experience.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The report provides one of the best diagram to explain where AI can be applied in businesses today.

In just its first year, TensorFlow has helped researchers, engineers, artists, students, and many others make progress with everything from language translation to early detection of skin cancer and preventing blindness in diabetics. We're excited to see people using TensorFlow in over 6000 open-source repositories online.

Second-generation Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are coming to Google Cloud to accelerate a wide range of machine learning workloads, including both training and inference. We call them Cloud TPUs, and they will initially be available via Google Compute Engine.

https://blog.google/topics/google-cloud/google-cloud-offer-tpus-machine-learning/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) are impossible to neglect today and recent announcements from Google on TensorFlow and Tensor Processing Units mean that more companies and developers will be able to explore how AI and ML can be leveraged in their applications and industries. Expect acceleration in this field.

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We say one company in a thousand makes it. This study provides hard facts that the numbers are more like 16%.

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The first question a good friend of mine always asks when I come to her with this great new idea (and it happens more often than not) is: "how are you going to make money?". And she is right: if the business model is not there, then no matter how much funding you get at some point in time, you will run out and will have to close. Simple. But frustrating for an entrepreneur to hear because my ideas are so great...!

That being said, I am old enough to remember the dotcom bust in 2000 and the various same-day delivery outfits that folded. Because they did not have a viable business model. So it may seem that the same has repeated here with one difference: the market is much larger than in 2000. Thus there may be some niche markets or geo that provide sufficient margins to make this a money making business. All others, see you next time.

I wrote about possible doom of same day delivery in the past so you can verify that I am not just saying in retrospect but that I called the shot years ago (earliest post is in 2013).

- first warning in 2013: http://sco.lt/6nkd4z

- same day delivery:  http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=same+day+delivery 

- food delivery: http://sco.lt/8tvFnl 

- same day not good, next day is great: http://sco.lt/4wpmQT 

- google same day not a great idea: http://sco.lt/67V5iz 

 

How do you learn to navigate an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and avoid obstacles? One approach is to use a small dataset collected by human experts: however, high capacity learning algorithms tend to overfit when trained with little data. An alternative is to use simulation. But the gap between simulation and real world remains large especially for perception problems. The reason most research avoids using large-scale real data is the fear of crashes! In this paper, we propose to bite the bullet and collect a dataset of crashes itself! We build a drone whose sole purpose is to crash into objects: it samples naive trajectories and crashes into random objects. We crash our drone 11,500 times to create one of the biggest UAV crash dataset. This dataset captures the different ways in which a UAV can crash. We use all this negative flying data in conjunction with positive data sampled from the same trajectories to learn a simple yet powerful policy for UAV navigation. We show that this simple self-supervised model is quite effective in navigating the UAV even in extremely cluttered environments with dynamic obstacles including humans. For supplementary video see: https://youtu.be/u151hJaGKUo 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We learn as much from our mistakes as from our good moves. This research shows that AI systems can do the same.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Managing large software development projects and software products requires a very structured approach that has evolved greatly in the past few years. Here is dropbox approach and I wrote about Spotify's in the past http://sco.lt/5aFJUf and http://sco.lt/6tfxIn and on devOps http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=devops 

However with the arrival of AI and deep learning, with the same better practices hold? I have not read much on this yet.

Over 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. SnowWorld attempted to divert a patient’s attention from the pain they were experiencing, and into a magical world that saw them flying through a virtual canyon while throwing snowballs at penguins and snowmen. It’s early, but according to Quartz, others have had similar success: the Pain Studies Lab at Simon Fraser University in Canada, Virtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego, and others have all reported significant improvement for patients using VR simulations to treat pain.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The power of VR is to transport you in another world. VR has been shown to help treat phobias such as vertigo but now it looks like it can also help with pain reduction. Great idea IMHO.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The study behind the recent assessment that Apple watch can be used to predict heart disease. The future of wearable device is health and wellness related.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Wearables are struggling to find their usefulness. I've been saying from the start that their killer app is with everything related to sensors. This appears to be truer than ever with news like this...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

For a while the saying was that "If You're Not Paying for It; You're the Product" but it looks like today "If You're Not Paying for It; You're the Data". data is in fact so important today because it is essential to program the new algorithms of deep learning. Those that have plenty of Data - Facebook, Google, Apple, UBER, Tesla - will be able to have better software and thus hopefully better products.

Thus, you are the data. Think about it next time you use a computer or mobile phone...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Virtual Reality (VR) is a great idea but very difficult to do well because you have to generate a whole new world. Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed-Reality (MR) offer a greater potential because it superposes useful information onto the real world. That is the promise and we will see with ideas like this, huge promises and a great deal of hype in the coming months and year. Brace yourself for the weirdests ideas and expect most to fail. 

But keep the faith in the basic idea that AR-MR will revolutionize your life and represent a technology/device/solution that will most probably become as pervasive as fast as the smartphone has with the advent of the iPhone. Because it will be useful.

Have you looked at Google Trends? It’s pretty cool — you enter some keywords and see how Google Searches of that term vary through time. I thought — hey, I happen to have this arxiv-sanity database of 28,303 (arxiv) Machine Learning papers over the last 5 years, so why not do something similar and take a look at how Machine Learning research has evolved over the last 5 years?

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

More research = more discoveries so we can expect even more practical uses of machine intelligence in the coming years...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We delegate our privacy to the companies we interact with every day: Google for emails and photos, banks for cash, credit cards for transaction data, governments for our taxes and medical clinics and labs for our health data. Well this story shows that health clinics should take care to secure and protect our health data more securely. By the way, the breach exposed here is very basic to prevent and should never occur in today's world of technology. Depressing...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We consume our digital mostly through our phones already and this trend is bound to continue for a while. This new OS from Google may shed light into options for the future where developers will be able to write one version of the mobile app that runs on all devices...?

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

In today's eCommerce world, winners do not limit themselves to building great catalogs and payment processing experience. They actively analyze data to understand customer behaviour, to provide them with exceptional information to speed-up their shopping experience, but also maybe make them buy more or more expensive products. This is a great example of such a data analysis by grocery shopping leader instacart. It provides amazing insights into grocery shopping but also has open sourced the data for others to benefit.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Looks like AR will be most powerful and useful in professional settings. This is a great example where surgeons get additional information to guide them during surgery without having to look up and away from their patient. Bravo!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Pretty much your whole life is online and digitize today. Your only protection from crooks is strong passwords that you never reuse. This article provides in depth discussion on the millions of passwords that are being sold for few dollars on the dark web. It should help you understand why this is important and what to do to be more secure.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you thought fake news was bad, well an era of fake audio and news clips is about to dawn on us. We need regulations to govern this otherwise there will be consequences in the political, business and personal fronts for sure...

 

Also see this other blog post on the subject, as it related to fake actors in movies, a much less troublesome use of the technology: http://sco.lt/8Eglqj

 

This field is moving fast if you compare this to a blog post of January 2016: http://sco.lt/85op5l 

Systems able to recognize sounds familiar to human listeners have a wide range of applications, from adding sound effect information to automatic video captions, to potentially allowing you to search videos for specific audio events. Building Deep Learning systems to do this relies heavily on both a large quantity of computing (often from highly parallel GPUs), and also – and perhaps more importantly – on significant amounts of accurately-labeled training data. However, research in environmental sound recognition is limited by currently available public datasets.
In order to address this, we recently released AudioSet, a collection of over 2 million ten-second YouTube excerpts labeled with a vocabulary of 527 sound event categories, with at least 100 examples for each category.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Training data is crucial for machine intelligence. This kind of stuff will help researchers improve their AI solutions. What is most important is the data has been crowdsourced from youTube videos. It used to be we were the product, not it seems we are the data...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This annual report on cybersecurity from Verizon is one of the best as it analyzes data from 2,000 breaches to draw a portrait of cybersecurity threats that is factual. Must read.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Maybe the most important security measure you can take today, this 2FA website gives step-by-step guidance on how to enable it on most popular websites like Apple, Google, Facebook and others. 

For more on protection your digital self, read this blog post and do the other 9 actions in there: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-moi-get-started-10-actions/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Grocery is the last frontier for digital disruption, everyone knows (huge market but late adopter of digital, especially eCommerce see http://sco.lt/8ai7W5 http://sco.lt/6q1Ijx http://sco.lt/8Y94vh ).

But no one knows when exactly they'll get disrupted. Many are betting on eCommerce but from the looks of this report, we may see a lot of changes in our weekly trip to the supermarket, from shelf monitoring to augmented reality.

Then again, grocers are pre-historic in their use of technology because of low margins and a very repetitive shopping experience. We mostly always buy the same products and are looking at our store "experience" to be fast with low prices, not so much fun and experiential (see Amazon GO http://sco.lt/8MTY8X where there is no cash register to slow you down still needs to be cheap http://sco.lt/80HuqX).

So my bets are on the startups that enable faster grocery shopping at a low cost- all others I expect will have a hard time (sorry AR and VR startups...)!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The Economist has made its April 08 cover "why computers will never be safe" to clearly state that we should all come to terms with the fact that improving our digital security and privacy will come from policies, rules and regulations, as it is impossible to ensure computer systems are built to be safe and un-hackable. I tend to agree with the statement and the conclusion, although I remain confident that over time the computer industry will find a way to make its systems safe by design. But we will live with a legacy of un-secure systems for many decades, so we must learn to deal with it.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Interesting to see where eCommerce is strong- unsurprising that USA is king, clearly China is not far behind (or ahead?). And Canada is not even on the map.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Amazon is a beacon in the digital transformation space - part of the famous GAFA acronym - Google Apple Facebook Amazon. This teardown from CBinsights shows that Amazon is way more than the eCommerce retailer we have come to love and rely on so much. The report reviews where Amazon invests and provides unique view into where it may be going. Retailers beware!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Updated number from McKinsey show agin that digital transformation has room to grow but that companies that embrace it see positive impact on both EBIT and revenue. So why are not more doing it? The answers: humans.

Digital transformation is difficult to do because there is no fail-proof recipe to follow. It requires trial-and-error and investments that may, at times, have to shift from traditional to digital (for example moving $ from TV ads to Facebook ads), requiring some executives to feel they are loosing power in favour of others. Because in the end there are humans behind those decisions and one has to make sure they all see benefits for them of the digital transformation.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you are a retailer with physical stores or a real-estate owner, this chart should scare you into rethinking you long-term strategy regarding a decrease in physical store square footage and increase in eCommerce. From the looks of it, as soon as the cost of money will increase (interest rates), we may see many retailers from the old-wave (read: no eCommerce) be forced into bankruptcy...

 

Also read this for other very interesting stats, including sales per sq.ft.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-22/retail-bubble-has-now-burst-record-8640-stores-are-closing-2017 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We all work so we should all be aware of this trend. For those of us that create strategy for others, this is essential to consider as an underlying trend.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Great chart from McKinsey that shows how to select technologies for the value they deliver. Need to improve time-to-market, look at rapid experimentation, concurrent engineering or cocreation. Useful and simple, can be reused in many other areas.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation in manufacturing is not as sexy as in Marketing as it often does not improve sales but reduces costs. Nevertheless it is an essential part of the digital transformation and this old vs. new chart from McKinsey clearly shows the transformation affects many different activities and resources in the organization.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

LinkedIn has 450M members, 190M historical job listings, 9M companies, 200+ countries (where 60+ have granular geolocational data), 35K skills in 19 languages, 28K schools, 1.5K fields of study, 600+ degrees, 24K titles in 19 languages, and 500+ certificates, among other entities. Making sense of relations between those entities is a difficult task and this paper explains how LinkedIn does it. Not for the technically faint of heart.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

WE always think of grocery as non technical and very hands-on, touchy-feely. This is becoming less and less so, a testament of the profound impact that digital technologies are having in our society at large.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Applying technology to the agriculture field has become huge business because it may have a profound impact on cost reduction, environmental protection and improve yields. This is one example of such tech.

Tiny bursts of electrical stimulation could help users feel walls and spaces in VR. Lopes and his team found that they could use the wearer’s own muscles against them, artificially creating a counter force, or the feeling of resistance to a physical object, by triggering the opposing muscles. The same setup can also enable the wearer to “hold” a large cube in virtual reality or press a virtual button–while using only a small wearable device hooked up to electrodes that are stuck to the user’s skin.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There is much work being done on improving sensors to place them on watches and other wearables to measure what humans feel and how they react to real life situations. The next logical step is of course for digital systems to modify human behavior. This is a very young field of research along with exoskeletons and other devices. But it can have a huge impact to make AR, VR, healtcare and fitness applications possible.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

For everyone concerned about privacy in the digital world, the mega digital record would provide visibility into what is currently a completely opaque process. But far more reaching is the possibility to extend this audit trail to all our personal data. 

WHY THISIS IMPORTANT

Requiring new computer algorithms to explain their reasoning process has become essential in this era of machine intelligence and deep learning. Here is why.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Wearables have had difficulty in recent months to provide strong selling arguments for their devices - which in my opinion are very often nothing more than very expensive watches. That being said, wearables killer use case may lie in the inclusion of sensors to track your every moves and measure your bodily functions, from heart rate to skin conductivity to blood glucose levels. 

 

Also read:

- top 5 wearable vendors: http://sco.lt/6QYZ73

- Apple wearable sensor network: http://sco.lt/96ftkP

- gyms now leverage wearables: http://sco.lt/68ynsv 

- wearables to keep us fit: http://sco.lt/58eRBx 

- fitbit for multiple sclerosis: http://sco.lt/8SsH5t

- wireless smart headphones: http://sco.lt/5NXCdt 

- ingestible sensors: http://sco.lt/83A1JZ 

- apple watch sensors (2013): http://sco.lt/8KKBWb 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Learning from the best is a must today. Engineering blogs are the way to gather insights from the best companies and individuals, to learn what solutions they found to the most difficult problems around.

 

I often refer to engineering blogs in my posts, see here some of them: http://fmcs.digital/?s=engineering 

This replaces an old references from 2015: http://sco.lt/6p5b7p

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We've been warning that our consumption of Internet will move to the mobile devices since 2005 when Google bought Android and Apple started work on the iPhone. This report from Comscore comes in to support that with actual numbers. In particular, and close to my field of expertise, it looks like most of us already consume digital on our mobile phones in the grocery store more than any other category...

Also, the analogy with the hierarchy of needs is dear to me as I wrote about the Hierarchy of digital needs recently... http://fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The retail stores will invariably change and this article explores some of the ways that this may happen: drive-thru stores, movement detecting sensors, digital shelves, social media interactions with stores to select products, scan-and-go or even better, grab-and-go without lines or cash registers. What will the store look like in the future?

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Looks like we soon will have Internet in every device we own. That's the Internet of Things. This reports provides a good overview of the market, the trends but also the possible uses for these devices. Must have in every business digital strategy.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It is true that Internet permeates every single fiber of the digital strategies and we often forget to think outside the box. In this case, how can we perform eCommerce transactions without the use of a browser? AI, internet of things, chatbots are great ways to explore the opportunities.

"Trends in Smart City Development" is a new report from the National League of Cities featuring case studies about how five cities – Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., and New Delhi, India – are using different approaches to implement smart city projects.
The report also provides recommendations to help local governments consider and plan smart city projects.
A "smart city" is one that has developed technological infrastructure that enables it to collect, aggregate, and analyze real-time data to improve the lives of its residents. The report suggests that any smart city effort should include explicit policy recommendations regarding smart infrastructure and data, a functioning administrative component, and some form of community engagement.
You can read the full report here. (PDF)

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Cities will contribute an enormous amount of data to help improve travel, work and life in general.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We think of robots as fixed machines that assemble cars. However, with the advances in autonomous driving we may see an explosion of delivery robots. We have seen experiments with the use of drones to deliver products (Amazon and others) and now we are seeing self driving robots appear on the streets as it is much easier to get permits for those than it is for flying objects that can crash and hurt people. This is important because delivery remains the Achille's heel of eCommerce (slow, expensive): whoever cracks this problem and comes up with a low cost and economical solution will make a killing.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Much talk about virtual reality these days but looks like the killer app will be AR. Wrote about this in the past and looks like IDC research agrees with me... ;-)

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Another look into new web and mobile CMS solutions.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Web is very dynamic and there are many new developments in technology to help improve website and mobile development. Here is an interesting look at new technologies for Content Management Systems (CMS).

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I always wondered how thieves steal my credit card number and this post is a very good explanation. It shows where I should be careful about my credit card use and, for business, where to look to improve security.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Americans have been at the fore-front of eCommerce - and in many respects UK, France and other European countries also. However, news like this remind us to look East to China, India and other Asian countries for digital innovation - here in the context of Retail but I assume it may be the case for other innovations.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Big brother is watching and when it does you can gain tremendous insights into the behaviour of humans. I zoomed in on Montreal and the diagram is very clear about which run trails are most popular on the Mount Royal. On the dark side, of course, this means Strava performs some high level surveillance on us as we share our bike and run rides with their software.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

To unlock up to 50% of value in data analytics in major industries, businesses must invest in talent and break down data silos. HUGE job IMHO...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Wearablesbubble has burst in recent months, when the hype of Apple watch has died down. But this technology remains important but still looking for the killer app, better battery life and lower price point. Expect this to reappear within a few year with, possible a low cost device with lots of sensors and a battery life of many days.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Need more diversity. Period.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Good to know that there is less and less friction to be online and in the cloud for teams and businesses. Moreover, I like using zapier to connect my different cloud solutions and performs simple tasks. For example, I use it to archive into a spreadsheet every tweet I post: useful when you want to quickly refer to it!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you ever doubted if cloud computing is important to include in a business digital strategy, this 10min video by Google chairman provides very compelling business reasons to do so.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Based on a detailed report, this article provides a chockful of stats about investments in certain technologies. Although based on a survey, it confirms certain trends that are widely accepted - so there should be no surprises for readers of this blog.

The US Department of Homeland Security used software to scan social media accounts of people visiting America, but it didn't work properly.

Under President Obama, the government considered asking people to voluntarily submit social media profiles, but since the election of President Trump the scheme may become mandatory and more invasive.

The new boss of the US Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly, has said that such checks should be mandatory and travelers should also be forced to provide passwords and banking records. This may take weeks or months, he said, but people will just have to wait before visiting this shining city on the hill.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Besides the obvious invasion fo privacy, this may actually hint at what the future may look like with the miniaturization of cell phones, the presence of heads-up displays and augmented reality. When meeting someone, or simply crossing someone on the street, face recognition and other tools may search the web to provide insights about people we cross and stand in line at the checkout counter. 

The impact of such constant surveillance may increase an already high fear of others or increase the impact of wrongful information about ourselves that may reside online.

Even more reasons to protect your digital twin and ensure your digital footprint is minimal.

Follow these links for more.

- know your digital twin: fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin

- 10 actions to take to protect your digital twin: fmcs.digital/blog/digital-moi-get-started-10-actions 

A SaaS company like Dropbox needs to update our systems constantly, at all levels of the stack. When it comes time to tune some piece of infrastructure, roll out a new feature, or set up an A/B test, it’s important that we can make changes and have them hit production fast.
Making a change to our code and then “simply” pushing it is not an option: completing a push to our web servers can take hours, and shipping a new mobile or desktop platform release takes even longer. In any case, a full code deployment can be dangerous because it could introduce new bugs: what we really want is a way to put some configurable “knobs” into our products, which a) give us the flexibility we need and b) can be safely tweaked in near real-time.
To satisfy this need, we built a system called Stormcrow, which allows us to edit and deploy “feature gates.” A feature gate is a configurable code path that calls out to Stormcrow to determine how to proceed.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Software deployment is difficult enough, let's use all the tricks in the book to make it easier. If it is good enough for dropbox I guess it should be good enough for me as well...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We often communicate better with images and drawings than with words. ;-)

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The fact that AI systems can now suggest new designs and explore new design areas that may be unexplored by human designers should be a strong motivation for businesses to explore how they can leverage AI before someone else does.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With such growth will come one of 2 things: explosion of new solutions and a huge market size OR a complete failure. I vote for complete failure as the solutions will not live up to the hype (too expensive, too immersive / lack of environment understanding, etc.). VR will not be a mass market solution this time around (AR has more chances to be it, but it is much more difficult to achieve than VR IMHO).

But the huge amount of investment will yield amazing new devices and opportunities for businesses that will be able to put forward specialized VR solutions in healthcare and manufacturing.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There are lists every year put together by many. When MIT says something I usually listen. And this year's list goes way beyond most gadgety ones.

Nowhere to hide anymore...

Just useful, a bit technical at times.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Mind control is the last frontier. We are not there yet but initiatives like this show the potential.

For those of you that wonder what lies underneath those black squares that power your computers and cell phones, this short paper will show you.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Pretty much everything you own these days is powered by a thing like that. You need to know what's inside, if only just to know.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Start by reading this article then read my top 10 things to do along the same lines: fmcs.digital/blog/digital-moi-get-started-10-actions 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Some people wonder if ransomware is real or popular. Here is the answer.

With the explosive growth of online activity and social media around the world, the massive amount of real-time data created directly by populations of interest has become an increasingly attractive and fruitful source for analysis. Despite the limitation that social media users in the United States are not a random sample of the US population [7], there is a wealth of information in these data sets and uneven sampling can often be accommodated.

Indeed, online activity is now considered by many to be a promising data source for detecting health conditions [8, 9] and gathering public health information [10, 11], and within the last decade, researchers have constructed a range of public-health instruments with varying degrees of success.

Fine-tuning these algorithms is key to improving large-scale analysis of social media, whether the goal is to measure the caloric content of a tweet or to find the next developing news story. These technologies represent new ways of finding and understanding the conversations we're having as a country -- chatter that is increasingly moving online.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

More insights on wellness and fitness from social media and big data. Here what is important to note is how we can extract knowledge from information that people share on social media. With more and more wearable devices and internet connected devices like refrigerators, cooktops, and water bottles, it is clear that more and more insight will be gathered from our digital exhaust.

 

More insights:

- more on the digital twin and digital exhaust: fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin 

- the website with all the data: panometer.org/instruments/lexicocalorimeter 

- twitter can also help predict happiness: hedonometer.org/index.html 

- the research paper: arxiv.org/pdf/1507.05098.pdf 

- lapresse+ article (in french): plus.lapresse.ca/screens/d09ef280-9b06-4fe5-935c-4155336ef100%7C_0.html 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Wearing a device such as a fitbit does something way bigger than providing you with insights: it provides a HUGE trove of data to be mined for trends and insights. I wrote about the jawbone big data analysis in the past, but recently found that fitbit has started to provide a similar service, analyzing data its millions of devices capture every day.

 

More insights:

www.fitbit.com/fitscience

fmcs.digital/?s=jawbone 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The US is leading the AI revolution, for now. Surprised not to see Montreal in the list...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Training artificial intelligence systems using deep learning algorithms requires large datasets where the elements you want to recognize - cats, planes umbrellas - are already identified.

This dataset from YouTube contains 380000 videos with over 10.5M annotations to help train systems of the future. We have to remember that the more data is available for training the better the system will perform. Nevertheless, this is interesting as is shows a little bit of the behind the scene in AI and helps understand a bit more how good AI systems will be - or when they may fail.

Additional datasets are available from google here: https://research.google.com/research-outreach.html#/research-outreach/research-datasets 

Recently, Google announced an 8M YouTube video dataset to help spark research: https://research.google.com/youtube8m/ 

A ranking of the 100 most promising private artificial intelligence companies.

It is a purely data-driven/algorithmic process that uses CB Insights data. We’ve gathered this data via our
machine learning technology (dubbed The Cruncher) as well as via several thousand direct submissions
from firms and individual professionals using The Editor.
The Company Mosaic page walks through the factors considered in the algorithm in some detail but at a
high level, it considers several factors including:
- Momentum – Considers non-traditional signals including news mentions, sentiment, jobs data/hiring,
social media, web traffic and usage, partnerships, and more.
- Market – Quantifies the health of the sector and industry the company is involved in, including funding,
deals, exit activity, and hiring.
- Money — Assesses financial signals including funding recency and total raised.
- Investor quality – Weighs the quality of the investors participating in deals to the company, judging
investors based on exits, returns, and portfolio quality.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Are we on the eve of an era where the Fortune 500 is replaced by the "AI 100"?

This may be more realistic than you think if the current predictions regarding the future of work push humans to service each other and let all the "work" be done by machines - robots and AI.

We are not there yet and this list merely reports 100 startups that are very active in the field AI. Nevertheless, it is interesting to consider what impact AI may have and adjust our digital strategies accordingly...

Fortune magazine has also created a very interesting infographics from this mountain of data: http://fortune.com/2017/02/23/artificial-intelligence-companies/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital twins have been created with and without our knowledge for years now. More on this here: fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/ 

 

However, this new technology goes one step further by creating a visual representation of people that can replace reality. Today, this is a research project that we assume requires lots of work and can only be done with large effort. But we are on the verge of having that technology available to many, cheaply, in real-time, at which time we won't even be able to trust our eyes. The only way to differentiate between truth and fiction will be via 3rd parties that guarantee that what we are seeing is reality. A brave new world is dawning...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This in-depth report by NY Times demonstrates clearly the impact of digital transformation. What remains are service level jobs that computers or robots cannot perform. Yet. 

A sobering - mandatory - read for our kids.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Retailers planning their eCommerce solution should take a hard look at their return policy and process. Statistics such as this demonstrate that return rates as high as 45% can wreak havoc on profitability, customer satisfaction and employee frustration!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I wrote about social engineering in the past and find this to be one of the most important security concern we should have when thinking about digital transformation: the end user. It is essential to educate users so they do not fall prey to scams like this one.

 

See here fro more on this topic: fmcs.digital/blog 

Maybe you’ve downloaded TensorFlow and you’re ready to get started with some deep learning?

But then you wonder: What the hell is a tensor?

Perhaps you looked it up on Wikipedia and now you’re more confused than ever. Maybe you found this NASA tutorial and still have no idea what it’s talking about?

The problem is most guides talk about tensors as if you already understand all the terms they’re using to describe the math. Have no fear! I hated math as a kid, so if I can figure it out, you can too! We just have to explain everything in simpler terms.

 

If you want to start nibbling on artificial intelligence, start by reading this tutorial. Simple, yet complete enough to walk you through the most important stuff.

Lots of elements to account for in your 2017 digital strategy.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As I wrote recently in the "Pyramid of Digital Needs" (fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/), security is one of the most basic needs. When we don't feel secure and private then it is difficult to enjoy the benefits of social networks and all the other tools that digital now provides. It is essential that corporations address security and privacy in a meaningful way in order for their clients, employees and partners to use their new digital tools and embrace the digital transformation that most enterprises have recently embarked on.

 

Also worth reading from Pew Research:

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

My role often is how to best select and deploy new digital technologies. But I must include the human aspect of the transformation - specifically which new skills are needed, how to update the org chart and whether to hire or outsource. I find that thinking of digital technology skilled employees as professional athletes helps a great deal. You hire/outsource for specific skill and role in your team, sometimes must pay a premium to get them (it's a seller's market) and be ready to trade them for another one in a few years or even months. C'est-la-vie!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As I wrote recently in the "Pyramid of Digital Needs" (fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/), security is one of the most basic needs. When we don't feel secure and private then it is difficult to enjoy the benefits of social networks and all the other tools that digital now provides. It is essential that corporations address security and privacy in a meaningful way in order for their clients, employees and partners to use their new digital tools and embrace the digital transformation that most enterprises have recently embarked on.

 

Also worth reading from Pew Research:

These third party login tools promise more traffic, more subscribers, more members, more customers and more sales — and those promises have come true: as some have noted, up to 80% of web users choose Facebook Connect or another social authentication option when it’s available (as opposed to signing up for a site with their email address), and Facebook itself has claimed that social authentication increases registration by 30-200%. (...) But is that promise worth the price of losing direct access to your customers’ contact information and profiling information — or for that matter, direct access to customers themselves?

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Social logins are very useful but they carry security and privacy concerns that every company must examine as they move to digitalize everything. In "Kill the password" (fmcs.digital/blog/kill-the-password-a-string-of-characters-wont-protect-you/), the author shows the impact of having multiple websites and applications connected with one another. This is a security concern that must be addressed, mitigated or at the very least highlighted so that everyone involved is aware of the risks and the benefits.

Other articles:

Chapman University has conducted a Survey of American Fears for more than three years. It asks 1,500 adults what they fear most. It organizes the fears into categories that include personal fears, conspiracy theories, terrorism, natural disasters, paranormal fears, and more recently, fear of Muslims.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Expect to hear more about security threats and fears in the coming years. In the digital world, I suggest that there is a "hierarchy of digital needs" (see the pyramid of digital needs fmcs.digital/blog/pyramid-of-digital-needs/) and that if we do not feel secure in the digital world, we will not be able to leverage the different tools and solutions available to us. In fact, the research shows that our fears are exacerbated when we are not in control, which is the case for most people as they do not fully understand digital technologies (layer 1 in the pyramid) and do not feel secure (layer 2).

 

"...many things affect how we perceive risk:

  • do you trust the person you are dealing with
  • control vs. lack of control (lack of control inflates risk perceptions)
  • is it catastrophic or chronic (catastrophic inflates risk perceptions)
  • does it incite dread or anger (dread inflates risk perceptions)
  • uncertainty (lack of knowledge about something inflates risk perceptions)

“Most people do not distinguish well between a one-in-a-thousand risk and a one-in-a-million risk,” said Mark Egan, an associate advisor at the Behavioral Insights Group in London.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I've been tracking the impact of digital in HR for a while and have been surprised at how slow the HR professionals have been embracing the digital tools at their disposal. This summary from CBinsights shows that innovation is very dynamic and that there are many new tools to improve HR. However, I find resistance in the corporate leaders to fully finance HR departments to transform (HR is still seen as a cost center - so you minimize its expense / If you see it as a strategic group then you fund it appropriately because you see returns) - but I also see resistance in HR professionals not willing to transform their processes and ways of doing things. Lots to do in this field IMHO.

 

Also read:

http://fmcs.digital/blog/tag/hr/

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=HR 

- www.rekruti.com

 

Good to know.

This concept of digital twins in the manufacturing world should not be confused with the concept of human digital twins.

http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/

Here, GE is mirroring digitally everything that a machine is doing, and Sight Machine is pushing the concept forward by mirroring entire manufacturing floors.

I wrote about this in the past numerous times and it is great to see HBR and others recognize this important trend: companies are sitting on huge amounts of information they can use to extract meaningful information and share it with their clients and employees to attract and retain them.

 

For example, look at jawbone and how they do it

I love to say that technology and digital in particular can bring huge benefits rapidly but that the impact of changes must be analyzed and addressed. Now Starbuck is in reactive mode after popular online orders are impacting in-store customers.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Change management and impact on humans and current processes is Paramount, especially now that we live in an omni-channel world.

Mozilla has always been promoting Internet security and privacy and this new report paves the way for a very interesting ongoing look at key elements of the public Internet.

This is a new concept that I have been thinking about for a few year and that may help explain why some persons are not ready to have a Facebook account or share on social networks.

In this post I share 10 urgent actions that must be taken immediately to manage, secure and protect your digital-moi.

Digital-moi is a unique concept that I have developed since 2013, centered on the impact that digital technologies have on our lives and the need to protect our digital self. Read more about it in this introduction post “We all have a digital twin“. This post is a complement to the conference “digital-moi.com: how to manage and protect your digital self“.

This is Data Privacy Weekend and I recommend you take time this Sunday morning to read through the actions in this blog post and put at least once in practice right now - my recommendation is #4

Read this important post to understand just how many traces we leave behind as we lead our daily lives.

The Wall Street Journal did an interesting piece looking at Google, privacy and the extent of their knowledge (as well as other entities like Facebook). I suggest you read it for the details. The following image gives some insight into just how much Google has on one WSJ reporter.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

On this Data Privacy Day 2017, I thought I would review what Google, Apple, Facebook and others know about me. Unfortunately, it looks like this information is difficult to find and pretty much the only data we can find is from Google. So, let's assume Apple, Facebook, twitter, and others know as much if not more.

Google tools that will show you what they know about you:

Other articles about those tools:

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We are being tracked everywhere as I reported in a previous article about behavioral tracking: http://fmcs.digital/blog/behavioral-tracking-explained-in-9min-video-by-gary_kovacs-via-ted-mustsee-privacyaware-dataprivacyday/ 

This new tracking method is very clever as it uses your browser configuration settings to derive an almost unique fingerprint to track you everywhere, even in the absence of cookies or ad beacons on a web page. On this Data Privacy day 2017, be aware, and be careful.

If you don't know what behavioral tracking is about, this may be an "awakening" video: be prepared.

 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I've been following the Firefox "collusion" add-on since its inception (it is now called "lightbeam" and you can find it here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/). I use it on a regular basis to remember the digital breadcrumbs I leave behind as I roam around on the Internet. Unfortunately, the lightbeam software add-on can only help by blocking the digital ads that track us and cannot minimize the behavioral tracking itself.

 

On this Data Privacy Day 2017, we must use this opportunity to raise our knowledge of the digital tracking that occurs in both the virtual world and the physical world. It is now a reality that we are being tracked as much in the physical world because we carry in our pockets smartphones that track our every moves - literally. Be aware, and be careful.

If you only do one thing here is what you should be doing: 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-moi-introduction/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We are just starting to scratch the surface of what we can learn when we analyze the personal data from social media. When everything is connected with Internet of things products and when we measure everything we do using wearables and quantified-self technologies, the insights will be even greater. Companies should prepare to analyze this massive data rush and us all should start to think about our information privacy more carefully...

Ecommerce continues to make gains among consumers, with more people buying products online than ever before. Indeed, eMarketer recently predicted that worldwide ecommerce sales would total $1.915 trillion in 2016, with $423.34 billion of that coming from North America. And the company forecast double-digit retail ecommerce growth through 2020.

  1. Grocery and fresh foods

  2. Health and wellness

  3. Pet products

  4. Artisanal/handcrafted goods

  5. Sporting goods

  6. Virtual reality

You have to wonder if 2017 will really be the year for online grocery shopping to take off... I've been saying it since 1996, and one year I will be right! ;-)

Amazing reference concerning ransomware: what they are, trends, recommendations, etc. Very well done, very useful.

Essential read on this new technology from Facebook that was made possible because of the social graph that Facebook builds. Impressive if only because the solution was easy to build.

 

Also read the companion article for a high-level description rather than this detailed one: http://highscalability.com/blog/2015/11/14/how-facebooks-safety-check-works.html

Predictions for retail word this year.

A good overview.

This sounds so funny...!

Very useful stats and data.

Simple. Easy. Efficient. Wow.

Very proud to share an article I recently co-authored on CloudRaker blog with Simon Hudson. It sheds lights into the potential impacts that AI will have on retail stores.

A must read ;-)

This is simply brilliant as it forces you to make moral decisions and then reports back on your biases based on your answers. Some of the choices are questionable (how will a self driving car determine if someone is homeless or a criminal) but overall the process is very useful when considering the decisions we will soon let machines make.

Another set of predictions for the year but in the context of exponential growth.

Digital impacts back-office as much as front office - so why has BO changed so slowly and what should be done. Some recommendations here

Digital strategy is one of the strategies to choose from. The article and the accompanying book sheds very interesting light into the strategy frameworks that exists and gives tools to help select the best for your needs and goals.

A simple overview of a very useful and powerful tool.

Perfect Sunday morning reading which is guaranteed to make you reflect and ponder for the next weeks. The article is a typical New Yorker one, very well researched and written. So captivating that it got me to start reading the book which appears to be as captivating and surprisingly easy to read and understand. I love those finds and have the feeling this book will be the best complement to "Singularity is Near" and "On Intelligence" that I wrote about in the past.

 

- book "singularity is near": http://fmcs.digital/blog/singularity-is-near-an-essential-read-to-understand-why-technology-evolves-so-fast/ 

- book "on intelligence": http://fmcs.digital/blog/on-intelligence-mustread-to-understand-frontal-cortex-architecture-what-makes-us-intelligent/ 

- article "Why the future does not need us": http://fmcs.digital/blog/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us-a-reminder-that-ai-may-have-a-bad-side-via-wired/ 

- related posts: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Singularity+is+Near 

Generation Z (Gen Z), born after 2000, is the first generation not to have known life without technologies and services such as smartphones, iPads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Exposure to these technologies and services has influenced this demographic’s broader expectations and behaviors.

We have identified three defining attributes of Gen Zers:

  • Gen Zers tend to attach great importance to personal appearance, in large part because they are the first generation to grow up “in public” online, i.e., documenting their lives on social media.
  • The pressures presented by social media are encouraging Gen Zers to spend on leisure services, such as vacations, dining out and going out. This is what we call “the Instagram effect.”
  • The on-demand economy, ranging from video-on-demand services such as Netflix to dine-on-demand apps such as UberEATS, is making Gen Z the most demanding, least patient generation ever.

US consumers spent $829.5 billion on Gen Zers in 2015, we estimate. Around $66 billion of that total was spent on discretionary categories, while most of it was spent on essential or semi discretionary categories such as housing, food, clothing and transportation.

Make sure you can fulfill their digital needs because they are coming to replace the millennials!

Amazing that those 4 tools are not already in sales associates hands today:

  1. Access to deep product information

  2. Access to customer profile information

  3. The ability to sell items that aren’t physically in the store

  4. A way to communicate with each other

Great article to remind us of it!

Generation Z (Gen Z), born after 2000, is the first generation not to have known life without technologies and services such as smartphones, iPads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Exposure to these technologies and services has influenced this demographic’s broader expectations and behaviors.

We have identified three defining attributes of Gen Zers:

  • Gen Zers tend to attach great importance to personal appearance, in large part because they are the first generation to grow up “in public” online, i.e., documenting their lives on social media.
  • The pressures presented by social media are encouraging Gen Zers to spend on leisure services, such as vacations, dining out and going out. This is what we call “the Instagram effect.”
  • The on-demand economy, ranging from video-on-demand services such as Netflix to dine-on-demand apps such as UberEATS, is making Gen Z the most demanding, least patient generation ever.

US consumers spent $829.5 billion on Gen Zers in 2015, we estimate. Around $66 billion of that total was spent on discretionary categories, while most of it was spent on essential or semi discretionary categories such as housing, food, clothing and transportation.

Make sure you can fulfill their digital needs because they are coming to replace the millennials!

Amazing that those 4 tools are not already in sales associates hands today:

  1. Access to deep product information

  2. Access to customer profile information

  3. The ability to sell items that aren’t physically in the store

  4. A way to communicate with each other

Great article to remind us of it!

Perfect Sunday morning reading which is guaranteed to make you reflect and ponder for the next weeks. The article is a typical New Yorker one, very well researched and written. So captivating that it got me to start reading the book which appears to be as captivating and surprisingly easy to read and understand. I love those finds and have the feeling this book will be the best complement to "Singularity is Near" and "On Intelligence" that I wrote about in the past.

 

- book "singularity is near": http://fmcs.digital/blog/singularity-is-near-an-essential-read-to-understand-why-technology-evolves-so-fast/ 

- book "on intelligence": http://fmcs.digital/blog/on-intelligence-mustread-to-understand-frontal-cortex-architecture-what-makes-us-intelligent/ 

- article "Why the future does not need us": http://fmcs.digital/blog/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us-a-reminder-that-ai-may-have-a-bad-side-via-wired/ 

- related posts: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Singularity+is+Near 

Written in 2000 and still valid - maybe more than ever in our age of AI and deep learning.

Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself.

Hawkins develops a powerful theory of how the human brain works, explaining why computers are not intelligent and how, based on this new theory, we can finally build intelligent machines.

The brain is not a computer, but a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the true structure of the world, remembering sequences of events and their nested relationships and making predictions based on those memories. It is this memory-prediction system that forms the basis of intelligence, perception, creativity, and even consciousness.

In an engaging style that will captivate audiences from the merely curious to the professional scientist, Hawkins shows how a clear understanding of how the brain works will make it possible for us to build intelligent machines, in silicon, that will exceed our human ability in surprising ways.

Written with acclaimed science writer Sandra Blakeslee, On Intelligence promises to completely transfigure the possibilities of the technology age. It is a landmark book in its scope and clarity.

 

A must read book.

A very high-level introduction and review of the work that led to Grok, a new service that will be demonstrated in 2 days at the Amazon re:invent conference

For those like me that were impressed with the book "On Intelligence" and are fans of the theory behind "Singularity is near", then this feels like another small but major step in the direction of intelligent machines.

An essential book (kindle book http://amzn.to/1SC8rvp) from Ray Kurzweil that presents data supporting the theory that technological evolution follows an exponential curve. The chart is a famous illustration of this exponential technology growth.

 

It explains quite well how the personal computer has been able to become part of our lives in such a rapid manner. With evidence and data form many technologies - from the microprocessor to DNA evolution - Kurzweil predicts a future where technology will help humans transcend the limitations that nature has imposed on us. 

 

Kurzweil is an optimist and shares with us a very positive outlook on the future. Not only is it an eye opening book, it has become the basis for a slew of new studies and gathering, including the singularity university.

Is this the first useful use case for smart watches?

Always good to know what is trendy to make sure we can support it with digital technology.

It is good to be a medical professional in the US!

A very good review of a database ransom hacks that target mongoDB databases with a link to another very interesting article on the immutable truths about data breaches.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/krebss-immutable-truths-about-data-breaches/ 

I am not a big fan of trends and yearly predictions as a glimpse into the future. However, I like them because they provide a good state of the nation - a condensed picture of where we are and what are hot topics. 

 

This review is of particular value in that respect and I especially like #2 where author states "2016 was the year solar and renewable energy became cheaper than coal" because it goes against what we often hear, yet confirms something we expect will happen as it has been predicted for such a long time.

Babies are inherently fragile and require attention. It is natural for parents to want to monitor and stay connected with them. Technology is the most natural way to provide solutions for parents that increasingly want to stay connected even when they are away. This has become a huge area for developments and improvements, as evidenced by the large number of startups at CES this year. Must watch for the future.

 

Also read in french: 

CES la mdoe du tout connecté pour bébés au CES 2017

http://www.lapresse.ca/techno/201701/09/01-5057758-ces-la-mode-du-tout-connecte-pour-bebe.php 

Always good to get reminded about the need for top level support and global participation of siloed departments.

A very interesting explanation of the process that CBinsight uses to search, compile and structure the information on startups that it tracks. The paper is already 3 years old so I expect that reliance on manual work is less and AI automation is leveraged more today. Nonetheless a good read.

Always useful to look at startups to see a glimpse of the future: what is hot, what is up-coming, what is challenging, and also what can be done.

A review of best ways to express yourself without using text.

A very good overview of the limitations of passwords and the many new mechanisms that exist to protect your digital assets.

The best articles of Wired by Wired. My favourite is the one with president Obama.

Creating and running an ecommerce store does not require technical skills anymore: anyone can do it. This paper provides very useful links to help anyone find solutions, tools and techniques to plan and execute the most common tasks behind a successful ecommerce store. Enjoy!

Just follow the link to the 2012 report and find out what it means to cross reference different digital databases.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Our lives are digital and we leave digital exhaust behind us everywhere we go. This paper shows what the US government uses to put together a composite picture of your digital twin. For now, they plan to use this for border crossing but in the future - 10 or 20 years down the road - what will this info be used for? Also, knowing that military and very advanced technology always makes it into the corporate world, how will this be used by corporations? 

The best of the Verge, very interesting papers on digital topics including machine learning, ecommerce, social media, self-driving cars, batteries, and many more.

A very good, detailed retrospective of major sources of security risk in the enterprise.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As pretty much every asset in a corporation is digital or bound to be, security is getting more importance within IT teams. However, this post very clearly shows that the most important security protection comes from end users, both from the tools and the education they have.

 

Security thus should be a global company consideration, not an IT one.

Sometimes good to look back when you wan to se ahead.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Knowing what information is captured about you, stored and the digital profiles that is created behind the scenes as you browse the web is a first step in regaining control over our digital twin so we can have better digital lives.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Go through the slides to understand the different information and dimensions that are being gathered about you in the digital world to create a digital profile or a digital twin of yourself.

Fjord's 2017 Trends 

 

  • EPHEMERAL STORIES: Where next, now that everyone's a storyteller? It is time for brands to give their audience the space to shape their own story.

  • SHINY API PEOPLE: Rewiring for innovation. Breaking down silos to create fertile ground for organization-wide innovation.

  • BLURRED REALITY: As Mixed Reality moves towards the mainstream, let's turn away from single reality experiences to focus on harnessing and combining all types of reality.

  • WORLD ON WHEELS: The focus is now on the car as a connected mobile environment in which things happen via multiple devices.

  • HOMES WITHOUT BOUNDARIES: From the smart home to the helpful home, with services built around and for humans rather than technology and objects.

  • HOURGLASS BRANDS: Don't get stuck in the middle! With a polarized brand landscape, brands sitting in the squeezed middle will need to optimize their strategies in order to survive.

  • ME, MYSELF AND A.I.: Humanizing chatbots, emotional intelligence (EQ) becomes a critical A.I. differentiator.

  • UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Organizations should start to think about social experiences to guard against unintended consequences of their activities.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Xmas break is just around the corner and we all need something to read so why not predictions, if only to make sure we did not miss any.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Surveillance is part of the web browsing experience mostly due to ads and social beacons. Trying to block them off not only degrades the user experience but may not provide the expected benefits as it may provide a different type of surveillance. Ad blocking does not appear to be the solution after all. So what can provide more privacy when surfing the web? The question remains open.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Author is a leader in the security and privacy world, and it is always important to know what leading minds believe is happening or may happen in the future. He painted a fairly bleak picture of the security and privacy in his book - which I recommend strongly. Here he suggests that security and privacy will suffer in a Trump presidency. I would argue this would be the same under Clinton but agree that we must remain vigilant. The large number of comments also provide very interesting insight: anyone that raises concerns about large scale surveillance will get raided by many.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

A key piece of eCommerce and retail has to do with delivering packages from warehouse to customer homes or offices. Amazon spends 12% of its revenue for shipping and is expected to ship more volume than FedEx in 3 years. To reduce this cost and improve customer service by allowing more frequent and faster delivery, Amazon has been doing a number of things:

1- putting trucks on the road with its AmazonFresh grocery delivery service;

2- building delivery infrastructure between its warehouses and distribution centers and delivery spokes;

3- now it is planning to become a broker between small parcel delivery providers in a UBER like model (this article)

4- self-driving vehicles have been targeting trucking industry as their primary focus, with UBER recently investing in startup OTTO and demonstrating a 2000 case beer delivery via self driving truck

Combine all these innovations and you have a profound disruption in the delivery and logistics industry. Retailers should now consider Amazon no longer as an online marketplace and third-party logistics company (3PL) but also as a parcel delivery solution provider that can compete FedEx and UPS provide last-mile delivery solutions and eliminate the need for retailers to maintain or lease their own delivery vans and trucks.

 

Links in this post:

A discussion on the impact that technology innovation has had on the election of Trump and more disruption to come from Amazon. 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The author presents compelling arguments about reasons why technology innovation has had such an impact and forces us to rethink most business models. Moreover the analysis of Trump's election as evidence that the power has shifted from editors and political parties to voters and end users is just brilliant and I will certainly use it in the future!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Amazon GO is pushing the boundaries of retail store technology by bringing together multiple innovations to reduce time it takes to shop by removing cash register and checkout counters. This is very useful in certain industry but it is good to remember the reality of grocery shopping: you do this every week and allocate a large portion of your budget to food. Thus price is very important, especially when you have families and limited budget. It does not mean Amazon GO will fail but that it may not be appropriate in every segment of the retail industry.

 

Chart by Statista and BI: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-go-consumer-doubt-survey-chart-2016-12 

 

Also read more on Amazon GO: http://fmcs.digital/?s=amazon+go 

Below are some articles that describe AmazonGO technology in more detail, including a video animation. As you can see, we know very little and everyone is guessing at this time based on patent filing and an article from a consultant now hired by Amazon.

 

Various other articles:

 

Amazing insights into the mobile industry state and trends.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Andreessen Horowitz, and Benedict Evans in particular, have been known to spot trends long before everyone else. Here again, it appears they are making predictions about retailing - following in the steps of the print industry when Internet came along. Not certain I agree about the parallel but I agree that mobile and AI and other technologies will impact and transform the retail world in the near future. However, as opposed to the print media, retailers often sell physical goods that cannot, for now, be 3D printed at home. So either you pick them up in the store or get it delivered by FedEx or a drone. 

That being said, retail stores are bound to transform in showrooms and service centers as I wrote about in the past. And this is a major shift that many will fail to take.

Hello World is an amazing series of video reports on digital transformations and Internet and technology. I find this episode on Russia of particular interest regarding privacy - or the loss of privacy. Must listen.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Daily activities leave digital traces that can be leveraged to improve processes and deliver value in organizations. We often overlook this data in organizations but we should realize that companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and others have invested huge amounts of efforts to dig into the data exhaust of our digital and physical world activities in order to extract, infer, predict our tastes and behaviour. If it works for them, it should work for us as well, no?

Recent announcements of fully automated, no cash register no lineups Amazon stores, have made the use of RFID chips and other digital identification techniques the topic of discussion again.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation requires bridging the physical world with the digital one. One of the simplest way to do so is to attached radio frequency beacons (RFID chips) to products so that you can detect their presence and make inventory management and checkout faster, easier and more accurate. Pushing this idea forward of course means that humans too should be tagged to help identify them in the digital world. Not only does this open a see of useful application - unlocking doors without a key, tracking location inside a building, removing the need for password - it also raises concerns about privacy and identity management. Fun times ahead!

 

Amazon GO: http://fmcs.digital/blog/amazon-go-no-registers-no-cash-no-lines-retail-store-digital-transformation-huge-leap-forward/

Retail location tagging: http://sco.lt/6yVDqz 

Décathlon connected products and self checkout: http://www.force-ouvriere.fr/chez-decathlon-85-des-produits-sont-connectes?lang=fr 

Early this year the staff at Epicenter, a Stockholm based high-tech company, were given a choice; they could either be issued a standard employee ID card for access to the building and office equipment, or they could be injected with a tiny radio frequency identification device, placed just under the skin of their hand – otherwise known as a subcutaneous implant. Surprisingly, a number chose the chip, on the promise that with a wave of their hand they would be able to access the building, open doors, operate photocopiers and even pay for lunch in the company cafeteria. No ID cards to forget at home or passwords to remember.

In fact, the Epicenter case is hardly the first experiment of its kind. Going back as far as 2004, Barcelona nightclub owner Conrad Chase offered RFID chipping to his VIP clients enabling access to special lounges and payment capability.

I knew they did this for dogs but never thought they did it for humans. But come to think of it, makes perfect sense. Or it will become the biggest invasion of privacy ever.

 

AI and Big Data are being applied to identity verification by a startup that has received 25M in funding and is poaching employees from Google.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

AI and other techniques will provide enhance capabilities to deter theft and privacy violations. They will become essential tools in digital transformation of businesses. For example, UBER is using Onfido to verify that people are who they claim they are, thus making their service better able to curb credit card theft, and protect drivers by ensuring their passengers can be tracked is they behave inappropriately. 

Location services on mobile phone can reveal information you may not want others to know. This post describes in simple term what geolocation can reveal.

I don't write about agriculture very often although it is very close to my heart as I was a gentlemen farmer in my teenage years.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Agriculture accounts for only 2% of workforce but 100% of the planet depends on it for its survival. Disrupting agriculture with digital technology may have the impact that genetic manipulations and fertilizers, with much less side effects. Moreover, digital agriculture transforms the lives of farmers themselves, turning them more into information workers surrounded by big data and robots than manure shovels and sunburns. And that is a good thing.

Simple and efficient, I wonder why this concept has not caught on with grocery as my tastes and what I buy is often way more predictable than clothing or other items.

Take a minute to watch the video. This is the future of retailing.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Amazon has disrupted many industries with its online business. Recently, as other digital leaders have done, Amazon is trying to bring digital revolution in the world to blend our physical and digital experiences - think Google self driving cars, Starbuck mobile phone payment and geofencing app, Apple stores that are more showrooms and help centres than stores because eCommerce is there to fulfill orders to your door, etc.

Amazon has been focussed on grocery for the past 10 years to use this weekly recurring, low cost, high volume shopping trip to the supermarket as its pathway to bring digital into the real world and blend it with online e-commerce.

With Amazon Fresh for examples they have been busy putting trucks on the road to deliver groceries to your door overnight with minimal costs. Why grocery? Because its high volume guarantees that trucks will be on the road everyday in all areas. And once trucks are running around carrying groceries they can also bring other items - books, TVs, etc. - at little or no cost, effectively making FedEx irrelevant or at least giving Amazon huge negotiation power.

I wrote about this in many blog posts, just see here: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=amazon 

Here with Amazon GO, it addresses some of the major pain points of customers in grocery stores: waiting in line at the cash register. As they've done online, Amazon focusses on its customer issues to smash them or make them so irrelevant that they are not issues anymore. See "amazon secret sauce" for insights on this: http://sco.lt/979c4P

Take Amazon Prime for example. It addresses the delivery fee issue: we do not want to have to pay for delivery. So they make it a non issue, providing 2-day delivery for free for an annual fee. Side effect: if you've paid for prime, then you spend up to 5x more at Amazon (300$ annually for average client, 1500$ for prime member), basically becoming a loyal shopper. Wow.

Back to Amazon GO and why it is important. The grocery industry has not seen a major disruption since Costco started top sell grocery in bulk format years ago - grocers ost 10% market share with that new player in the field. But today, grocery stores are the same, the layout is the same, the process is the same than it was 50 years ago. There has been little or no innovation in stores recently (last one may be the barcode in 1970s) but GO shows that there may be a perfect storm of technologies that combine to make physical stores transformation a reality:

1- mobile phones are on every customer back pocket;

2- electronic payment is everywhere, making cash almost irrelevant;

3- loyalty programs and big data allows retailers unprecedented customer knowledge and forecasting trends;

4- artificial intelligence enables real-time image analysis, feature detection, and robotic improvements.

From the concept store video and the Amazon description, all that GO is doing is applying these new technologies on a new problem set: adding and removing items to shopping basket and speeding the checkout process.

Of course, at the end of the day, the winner will not be the grocer with the best technology. It will be the one with the lowest prices and the best selection (best marketing and customer service won't hurt either). On those fronts (price & selection) Amazon GO faces huge headwinds from established grocers that have long standing relationships with suppliers and way more volume than Amazon. But it does not mean Amazon cannot provide customers with a more enjoyable, easy, fast experience - especially to millennials - which may give GO 5% or 10% of the market (the "good" 5% by the way, those that spend more and spend on higher margin items) from established retailers. And this will hurt established grocers like hell.

 

Also see the analysis from business insider here: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-go-grocery-store-future-photos-video-2016-12/ 

 

and the plans for Amazon to open up to 2000 store in the future if GO concept works: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-2000-grocery-stores-10-years-2016-10

The web never forgets. This new site offers ways to remove some traces of your digital life. Useful.

How I Burned 10 Million Dollars So You Don’t Have To.
(An Education in Humility, Humanity, and Leadership).

In February, my startup (Twenty20) employed 35 people. We had a board-approved plan to scale to 85 by the end of the year. As of July, we were at 55, and well on our way. Now, four months later, our team size is 12.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I love those stories because they are real-life, pragmatic, and reflect the reality of startups. Should be true not only for startups but intrapreneurs and small groups that burst into life in larger organizations. Lesson to learn: don't grow until you know your business model. Also: self-service is good. Must read to give you confidence, hope and also scare you a little.

If you have kids, have them read this.

One important stat from The Future of Jobs report is that the top trend that will drive change in work is new technology and innovation.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

All jobs will be affected by technology and thus every good digital transformation should include the human disruption and its impact on current and future employees. Too often, we implement digital change and fail to consider people impact.

Look at UBER taxis: their model is to plow ahead and disrupt the market but they have failed to accompany the taxi drivers that are impacted. Because of it they are facing huge head winds from governments and established corporations.

On the other hand, Teo Taxi (Montreal-based) has recognized the people impact and embraced human transformation of the cab drivers which results in much better relationships and less confrontation. Same technology, same process, different human approach.

Slack is great. Manysmarterpeople than me also think that Slack is great. Slack is great because its simple and easier to deal with than emails. With all the time it saves me on emails, I   relax / go the beach / write more code / send messages via Slack instead.

But while Slack might be great, it does not have a great native client for the Commodore 64. In fact, they have no client for Commodore 64 at all!

 

I thought this was just useless and funny at the same time to repurpose old technology for new uses. Maybe there is something here when considering digital transformation and extending life of existing technologies...

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

That being said, there is so much work involved - write assembler code, build custom hardware - that you have to appreciate how much we have evolved in the past 30 years as this solution can now be developed much more rapidly and much more easily with current tools and technologies.

 

https://scotch.io/tutorials/building-a-slack-clone-in-meteor-js-getting-started 

Moving large amounts of data to the cloud - petabytes and exabytes - would take years to do if transferred using networks and the Internet. Amazon provides its customers with dedicated and secure hard drives - they call snowballs - and truck - they call snowmobiles - to move the data from one data center to the next.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There are limits to our network infrastructures and physical solutions often are required to migrate data to the cloud or digitize products. For example scanning paper files or converting books to digital ones often require specialized equipments in order to perform the work rapidly and cost effectively. Google had patented a book scanning equipment in order to create its Google books project in the past. I assume this same kind of innovation will start to happen in other fields as well.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/13/3639016/google-books-scanner-vacuum-diy 

https://books.google.com/googlebooks/about/ 

 

More on this here: http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazon-snowmobile-truck-is-a-funny-for-real-product-2016-11 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Every industry is being transformed by digital, even those that were not so long ago considered off limit. Great example, the police force, which have systems that date from another era, can now benefit from cheap communication, cloud services, big data and analytics services to deliver mobile police insight and tools using everyday mobile phones and tablets.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Every industry is being transformed by digital, even those that were not so long ago considered off limit. Great example, construction industry, as every small contractor now has a cell phone and good data plan to connect to the cloud. New solutions are popping to take over this opportunity to transform an industry: sharing plans and project evolution with clients, tracking budget in real-time with feeds from material suppliers and even real-time decision making on the construction site. Opportunities are endless...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Amazing short 12min video because of the level of understanding that the President of the USA has of the threats that come from AI and other digital means. He has been briefed of course but his discourse and examples shows that these are very important topics on top of mind for him and his administration. Moreover, it raises some concerns on our ability to fight against those threats and the impact they can have on countries and businesses alike. Must listen video IMHO.

Simple, easy things to do to be more secure. Do it. Today.

This year's DEFCON24 report is full of information about social engineering, the event and methods to protect your organization. This is IMHO a must read for every executive to see how easy it is to breach security of their organization which can potentially result in theft, both physical and digital.

http://www.social-engineer.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Social-Engineer-Capture-The-Flag-DEFCON24-SECTF-2016.pdf 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Often we think that our digital lives or digital transformations must be protected with strong passwords, encryption and other digital security methods. However, time and again the "social engineers" have demonstrated that the weakest link in the chain often are the individuals, employees and partners that voluntarily divulge sensitive information. And this, no technology can prevent and companies must invest in training their employees to detect the social engineering methods and respond with appropriate actions when such techniques are being tested on them.

You have a secret that can ruin your life. It’s not a well-kept secret, either. Just a simple string of characters that can reveal everything about you.

 

DON’T

  • Reuse passwords. If you do, a hacker who gets just one of your accounts will own them all.
  • Use a dictionary word as your password. If you must, then string several together into a pass phrase.
  • Use standard number substitutions. Think “P455w0rd” is a good password? N0p3! Cracking tools now have those built in.
  • Use a short password—no matter how weird. Today’s processing speeds mean that even passwords like “h6!r$q” are quickly crackable. Your best defense is the longest possible password.

DO

  • Enable two-factor authentication when offered. When you log in from a strange location, a system like this will send you a text message with a code to confirm. Yes, that can be cracked, but it’s better than nothing.
  • Give bogus answers to security questions. Think of them as a secondary password. Just keep your answers memorable. My first car? Why, it was a “Camper Van Beethoven Freaking Rules.”
  • Scrub your online presence. One of the easiest ways to hack into an account is through your email and billing address information. Sites like Spokeo and WhitePages.com offer opt-out mechanisms to get your information removed from their databases.
  • Use a unique, secure email address for password recoveries. If a hacker knows where your password reset goes, that’s a line of attack. So create a special account you never use for communications. And make sure to choose a username that isn’t tied to your name—like m****n@wired.com—so it can’t be easily guessed.
You have a secret that can ruin your life. It’s not a well-kept secret, either. Just a simple string of characters that can reveal everything about you.

 

DON’T

  • Reuse passwords. If you do, a hacker who gets just one of your accounts will own them all.
  • Use a dictionary word as your password. If you must, then string several together into a pass phrase.
  • Use standard number substitutions. Think “P455w0rd” is a good password? N0p3! Cracking tools now have those built in.
  • Use a short password—no matter how weird. Today’s processing speeds mean that even passwords like “h6!r$q” are quickly crackable. Your best defense is the longest possible password.

DO

  • Enable two-factor authentication when offered.When you log in from a strange location, a system like this will send you a text message with a code to confirm. Yes, that can be cracked, but it’s better than nothing.
  • Give bogus answers to security questions. Think of them as a secondary password. Just keep your answers memorable. My first car? Why, it was a “Camper Van Beethoven Freaking Rules.”
  • Scrub your online presence. One of the easiest ways to hack into an account is through your email and billing address information. Sites like Spokeo and WhitePages.com offer opt-out mechanisms to get your information removed from their databases.
  • Use a unique, secure email address for password recoveries. If a hacker knows where your password reset goes, that’s a line of attack. So create a special account you never use for communications. And make sure to choose a username that isn’t tied to your name—like m****n@wired.com—so it can’t be easily guessed.
Farid Mheir's insight:

An old Wired magazine article from 2012 that is still as current today as it was then. Unfortunately.

 

If you don't read the whole thing, just skip to the DOs and DONTs.

And read these other articles: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Security

Google is warning individuals that their Google accounts are being hacked - even if they turned on 2-factor authentication.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This news stories highlights some very important security and privacy elements:

1- Google is actively protecting security and privacy of high profile individuals which is reassuring because only they have the size and scope to fight state-funded hacking

2- I always believed 2-factor authentication was a good way to protect your digital self: looks like I was wrong. More on this later...

3- Google has been doing this since 2012, so the whole thing is not new but recent DDoS attacks using Internet of Things devices (cameras, etc.) demonstrates that hackers now have new, very effective hacking tools and they are using it.

A vulnerability in always on devices that listen to our every words can be turned into a spy tool.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We are surrounded by "always on" devices - from Apple Siri and Airpods to Google NOW to Amazon echo. They listen to your every word looking for keywords such as "siri" or "OK google". Using those features one should assume the device is listening all the time and potentially recording to the cloud our conversations, which has a number of people quite scared including this Guardian article named "Goodbye privacy".

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/21/amazon-echo-alexa-home-robot-privacy-cloud 

 

Here we are faced with an exploit that enables speakers - which everyone thinks of as an output device - to become listening devices. Any engineer knows that speakers and microphones work based on the same electromagnetic principle. However this exploit is special because it transforms the output port on the computer into an input port, allowing speakers to become microphones. And then record everything, compress it and send it to the cloud where it can be used for spying or other purpose.

 

The end of privacy is closer than it has ever been...

WalMart is testing a new food traceability solution co-developed by IBM using blockchain technology.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Blockchain, the technology behind the bitcoin currency is being actively enhanced to be used for other application than Finance or payment. In this particular case, food retailers may find that using this technology will improve traceability of food products and facilitates recalls when they are needed. The fact that WalMart embraces it so early probably means the current systems are not very efficient and that there are opportunities to reduce costs and improves brand image and reduce liabilities. Digital transformation does mean more than just being present on social networks and improving marketing.

 

Read more about it :

  1. Understand blockchain in 2 min: http://fmcs.digital/blog/understand-the-blockchain-in-2-minutes/
  2. How blockchain can change the world: http://fmcs.digital/blog/how-blockchains-could-change-the-world-not-just-banking/ 
  3. Editing the blockchain: http://fmcs.digital/blog/editing-the-uneditable-blockchain-accenture/ 
  4. Chain block blog: http://fmcs.digital/blog/chain-blog-a-blog-dedicated-to-blockchain-technology-and-innovation/ 
  5. Bitfinex lost 120K bitcoins: http://fmcs.digital/blog/hong-kong-bitcoin-exchange-bitfinex-loses-nearly-120000-bitcoins-in-hack/ 

A review on real-life beacon deployments in retail store tends to demonstrate a resurgence of proximity geographic location tracking.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation strategies require that customers are tracked in the real world as much as they are in the web-world. This often means that the mobile devices we carry enable a seamless digital communication - tools to push promotions and notifications while we walk the street or store aisles. To do so, retailers must know where you are and geofencing is not enough anymore. Beacons come to the rescue and mobile OSes - both Apple and Google - now build into their APIs very good location services which allow mobile app developers ways to connect with users in a very personal way. Using GPS location is not sufficient, especially indoors, so beacons are a must and reports such as this one show that our physical world has become a forest of digital beacons to track our every moves. We all thought this technology was dead after the initial failure of the 2013 Apple announcement. However, all retailers should now include geolocation and proximity tracking in their digital strategies and mid-term roadmaps, as it has apparently moved from the lab to the real world.

 

More on location services in the OSes, see the following links:

 

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenessPG/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009497-CH1-SW1

 

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/location/index.html 

Describes recent DDoS attacks and provides links to Akamai State of the Internet report, a very useful reference.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Going digital often means relying on the Internet for critical business operations. This article is a stark reminder of the need to put security on the top of priority list.

A review of the most in-demand skills and the way to visualize them to more clearly identify and rate potential new hires.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The article shows the gitHub contribution profile in the chart clearly shows that Alex is a more constant contributor than Dana and that he may have better skills for a computer programming job. what if if was possible to "visualize" the skills of your employees and prospects based on data and metric such as this one? We would then be in a better position to hire and promote the right individuals based on their true skillset and unbiased data.

Deloitte survey on Thanksgiving weekend forecast.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Always interesting to look at the forecast then compare with actual numbers. In the past, the pattern was clear: people move their holiday shopping online. What is also interesting is in the chart above about webrooming and showrooming: physical stores continue to play a big role and that is why omni-channel technologies are more important than never.

Very technical series of articles on deep learning coding techniques. Useful to read even if you have only limited DL coding experience because it pulls the covers from over a very new way of coding - especially for old nerds like me!

 

part 1: http://online.cambridgecoding.com/notebooks/cca_admin/deep-learning-for-complete-beginners-recognising-handwritten-digits 

part 2: http://online.cambridgecoding.com/notebooks/cca_admin/convolutional-neural-networks-with-keras 

part 3: http://online.cambridgecoding.com/notebooks/cca_admin/neural-networks-tuning-techniques 

A very good review of the limitations of passwords and the multiple new methods we will have to enhance our digital security.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

To go digital, being secure is very high on the list of priorities. Maslow had put security as the second layer in the pyramid of needs - and I believe this is also true in the new pyramid of digital needs!

A study of 250K people over 2011-2015 timeframe across 33 countries in OECD shows that most users can barely operate their computer of mobile phone.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation strategies and roadmap often fail to allocate sufficient effort/budget/time/resources to accompany employees and users with the proper change management. This study shows why: most people don't know how to perform simple computer tasks. Put them in front of a new software or technology and they will fail, or even worse, they will discredit the solution so as not to show their inability. Accompany them and recognize that they need help and they will succeed in their transition. And you will succeed in your digital transformation.

I recently had the pleasure to meet Pilgrim Beart now the CEO of devicepilot at a TM Forum workshop about the Internet of Everything (IoE) business models and monetization. He shared his story about alert.me an early connected home start up founded in 2006 that was sold in 2015 to British Gas for 100 million €.

He said that they were in intensive discussion with three industries: utilities, retail (DIY chains) and Telcos, as he felt for all three of them there was a huge potential to build a platform on top of their core business. Despite trialing and piloting with all three industries only the efforts with Telcos never led to any real-life implementations.

A very interesting article on the changes that could happen in the telecom industry with the evolution towards Internet of Things and 5G technologies.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The paper highlights many important questions and decisions that players in the telecommunication industry must answer. I argue that similar questions must also be had in other industries, such as in Retail for example. 

Heidrick & Struggles provides some insight on how to best determine if digital skills are required in the boardroom. In particular they raise the important of digital advisory boards.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital and technology transformation should be part of every board member checklist as the digital transformation requires support at the highest level.

Let’s say you fancy a fast car. Flavio Garcia, a University of Birmingham computer scientist, discovered the algorithm that verifies the ignition key for luxury cars like Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. He was slapped with an injunction to ban him from disclosing his findings at the Usenix Security Symposium in order to prevent sophisticated criminal gangs from having the analytics tools for widespread car theft.

You might need Garcia’s algorithm to steal a car, but soon, with an entirely different algorithm, you may be able to crash one into a tree or disable its brakes from a distance. Or maybe it’s a fast boat you’re after. Mess with its GPS, and you can steer it where you want without the crew noticing.

This post is full of very relevant and useful links. Building on what is in this piece, I suggest the following to get a feel for the evil side of these hacks. 

 

Listen to the 60 minutes report on the stuxnet and the flame viruses, which were recently used to attack nuclear facilities in Iran. Also read an interesting report during a recent security conference of simulated attacks on an oil rig or another post on potential security concerns with airplanes.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformations ultimately will mean everything will be digital - corporations, things, and most of what people see and do. And when you get to 100% digital and 100% connected, some of what Alistair is describing will become common place.

An interesting overview of the impact that social media, Facebook in particular may have had in the elections. Not sure if that is the case but for sure the world of media has evolved tremendously.

A video from Google demonstrates how to drop virtual furniture in your home environment, make sure it fits in the room then buy it directly from the augmented reality scene. The eCommerce segment starts at 17m16s

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Augmented reality has the potential to revolutionize businesses much before Virtual Reality because it can so seamlessly add to your existing world. The video shows examples of an AR measuring tape that can also be used in an commerce setting. Other uses for AR in the business context, to review floor plans and planograms in retail settings, or help with repairs have been proposed in the past. Some Google glasses videos demonstrated some interesting use cases. It now looks like our mobile phone will in fact be carrying the necessary hardware to make AR a reality much sooner than anyone may have anticipated...

 

See also:

field repair, parcel delivery and other usage for google glasses: http://fmcs.digital/blog/google-glass-will-be-more-successful-among/ 

IKEA AR via its 2013 catalog: http://fmcs.digital/blog/augmented-reality-catalog-places-ikea-furniture-in/

translation AR: http://fmcs.digital/blog/looking-for-google-glass-killer-apps-via-mit/ 

google glass in operating rooms: http://fmcs.digital/blog/google-glass-finds-its-way-to-the-operating-room/ 

An inventory of technologies that can be deployed in retail stores.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Retail stores are being transformed by digital technology. Apple stores have shown that retail space today is more than a warehouse where customers fulfill orders. Today's store must also demonstrate products, educate customers and provide customer service. Store must also fulfill orders, although that should preferably be done online. In that context, stores leverage technologies to communicate with their customers, inform them, as well as provide an omni-channel experience.

Choosing the right technology to deploy is a challenge, but my experience has shown that the overall retail store business model must be reviewed to ensure the right content, support and service is made available. 

An ebook that presents e-signature options, risks and rundown on where they are accepted worldwide. A great reference when planning digital transformation to include digital signature and its legal implications.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation often means going paperless, or at the very least reduction in time it takes to digitize in order to reduce process duration and overall speed things up. This ebook provides valuable insights and guidance to help prepare for this, especially in large organizations that have global coverage and clients/partners.

Short video that shows how human anatomy is being put into augmented reality to create lifelike, interactive models to help medical students learn anatomy.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Right now this is a generic human but in the future we will be able to have our own bodies represented in AR for medical doctors to peer into our corpse, via scans and radiology pictures. 

 

IF they can do this with a human body, why are not more companies investing in making AR models of their most complex machines (think boats, planes, complex manufacturing machines, etc.) to help training, safe operations and troubleshooting? I would imagine that digital transformation strategies and plans should include elements of AR and VR, don't you?

A short post with links to useful resources claims that we may very soon have emoji URLs. Instead of the familiar www.cnn.com for example you may find emojis such as hearts and smileys.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Internet has become so important and the browser so essential to many that URLs have started to "mean" something instead of being purely a reference to a website. I remember the dotcom URL rush, where savvy investors were registering short URLs such as pet.com or meaningful ones like mcdonalds.com then sitting on them for months or years and selling those URLs for thousands or hundreds of thousands. Are we going to relive that era? Maybe...

Convolutional neural networks. Sounds like a weird combination of biology and math with a little CS sprinkled in, but these networks have been some of the most influential innovations in the field of computer vision. 2012 was the first year that neural nets grew to prominence as Alex Krizhevsky used them to win that year’s ImageNet competition (basically, the annual Olympics of computer vision), dropping the classification error record from 26% to 15%, an astounding improvement at the time.Ever since then, a host of companies have been using deep learning at the core of their services. Facebook uses neural nets for their automatic tagging algorithms, Google for their photo search, Amazon for their product recommendations, Pinterest for their home feed personalization, and Instagram for their search infrastructure.

A 3 part post that explains what CNNs are. It explains their architecture, and provides plenty of examples and diagrams to help even non technical readers understand the concepts.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

CNNs are essential technologies behind the current boom in artificial intelligence and deep learning that has led us to have very good speech recognition in Google Android phones, amazing image recognition, self driving cars, etc. etc. They are essential components of any digital transformation strategy.

A report by Accenture that presents use cases where editing the blockchain may prove to be required, which goes against the blockchain fundamental principles.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Reading the report you realize how the blockchain can be used for non monetary transactions and proposes reasons why editing it may be good. If you are considering - as I am - to leverage blockchain in your projects and strategy, then this is a must read paper.

Follow the links for a detailed report on this study.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

People don't want to change. I see this every day with technology projects. Digital transformation is not different.

Tesla announced that beginning today, all the cars it builds will have the necessary hardware to drive completely on their own if the owner decides they want to enable the option. The full self-driving hardware suite will cost an additional $8,000.

1- First, look at the video at the end of the article.

 

2- Then, read the article to understand what Tesla is doing

 

3- Then, listen to this other video to understand that self-driving will be part of every new Tesla vehicle but will operate in "shadow mode".

https://www.wired.com/video/2016/10/nasa-s-pumpkin-carving-contest/ 

New Teslas will be self-driving and comparing their driving to what the human drivers did (and presumably learning from them). They will collect huge amounts of data, which will demonstrate that self-driving is safer than human driving.

 

4- Then, dive into this more complete description of the technology. 

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/teslas-self-driving-car-plan-seems-insane-just-might-work/ 

 

5- Then, look into this video of a self-driving delivery 18-wheeler that drove 200 miles without human intervention.

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/ubers-self-driving-truck-makes-first-delivery-50000-beers/

 

6- Realize this is not fiction but 2016 reality.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Self driving must find its way into every major corporation strategic plan. It will impact how retailers receive their products from factories and distribution centers. It will make eCommerce easier with lower cost delivery (which still accounts for 15 to 25% of the online total) and will enable same-day delivery. It will transform travel between large cities, and school bus for our kids. It will change the way ships carry their loads.

Self-driving will create a shockwave in human resources department and unions, which will fear the replacement of human drivers by machines. It will require appropriate communication, retraining, and investments to ensure a smooth transition into the new reality.

Don't worry this will not affect your 2017 bottom line. It won't even affect 2020's bottom line. So if you manage with a short term vision, life is good, stay the course, and forget everything I just said.

 

Others, call me!

Another data point that shows CIOs and technology teams are not able to carry the digital transformation in organizations.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation is more profound than simply installing new technology or tools. What this recent survey shows is that it often is customer-focussed, which leads the marketing team to carry the ball forward. Because the digital transformation *also* implies new technologies, we see tension between CIOs and CMOs, which often lead to internal struggles, duplication of effort and sometimes the creation of the CDO role to sit between the 2.

Article describes how a 3D printing company uses AI to look at the 3D print and adjust it throughout. What is most impressive is the video of the creation of a very large 3D structure that is happening over many days.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We have been used to see 3D printers as desktop devices. With this we now see that robots equipped with 3D printing heads can now become production machines able to spit out  - almost literally - very large structures. This has an impact on any manufacturing company as they look into the digitization fo their manufacturing plant.

A short run down on personal technologies coming our way soon.

 

WHY THISI S IMPORTANT

I've been speaking about the impact of digital technologies to transformation our personal lives and the opportunities this brings to business for a while in my "me.com" and "we.com" conferences (http://fmcs.digital/conferences). Looks like there is even more to it than originally I anticipated with the convergence of InternetOfThings, AI, BigData, and wearables. Your employees in the future will be even more connected and digital and companies should take notice and leverage it to 1) improve productivity 2) support work-life-wellness balance 3) tap the social networks to their benefits (ie. social recruiting).

A detailed explanation of how buffer has refactored its android mobile app source code to be more efficient and better organized.

Sharing experience on an IT audit that has proved very successful.

Although overall growth has slowed it looks like Internet users are becoming more mature and selecting the websites they go to. Is this a trend for the future, where big sites will keep getting bigger?

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Business will have to fight for their sites to stay relevant otherwise they will start to see declining trafic.

Looks like in-store technologies - screens, beacons, kiosk, mobiles apps, etc. - should be considered for other purpose than to increase revenue.

A survey of 812 senior executives continues to show that companies expect IT and the CIO to drive the digital transformation but that IT department are not ready or equipped to lead the way. Been like that for a long time. Sad.

A great read on how digital economy startups are doing things differently by sharing everything from revenues to salaries to how they are hiring and firing people. A great source of inspiration for anyone that ever had a startup and needed to take tough decisions.

The forthcoming Bluetooth 5.0 update, which claims to quadruple the range and double the speed of low-energy connections, could then be seen as “foundational release,” according to WiFore CTO Nick Hunn, who is helping develop the tech. The idea is for that to set the stage, mostly benefiting Internet of Things (IoT) devices, then layer the audio functionality on top next year.

Bluetooth 5.0 technology will enable new devices and applications.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With new wireless devices and beacons being deployed in stores and cities, retailers should prepare to embrace wireless devices and solutions in the coming years. This should become part of their digital strategy.

A great reference if you are in the market to build your own eCommerce solution.

A report shows that letting customers order ahead using mobile apps converts to higher sales order value.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Retailer have invested in mobile apps in recent years mostly use them as marketing tools to notify customers of promotions, etc. With recent trends showing that customers download less and less apps to concentrate on a few well known ones (Facebook, etc.), retailer must find new ways to have their customers use their apps. Looks like if you allow customers to save time by pre-ordering their meal, it becomes a hot and customers spend more. Good to know.

Always interesting reading on digital transformation by Capgemini which has been at the forefront of defining digital transformation. Read this one, then flip through old ones...

With the introduction of robots, the fear is that humans will loose their jobs. In the short term at least, it may only transform work.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Any strategic plan should include a chapter on robotics and the replacement of human labour with robots (and possible AI as well). The article shed some insights on historical perspective - farmers have not disappeared with introduction of mechanical devices but they have become much more productive - as well as raises some interesting ideas about our cohabitation with robots in the near future.

Use this link to access the Forrester report for free on solutions to help protect your organization from the digital threats your corporation faces on its brand, cyber presence or physical locations.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

First, the paper describes the various risks you may face in a digital world. If you don'T know the difference between OSINT, TECHINT, SIGINT, HUMINT, CHINT then you must read it.

Good to know.

Second, it lists the various ways in which you can protect yourself.

Interesting.

Finally, it lists tools you can use to secure your company.

Useful.

With the season of Black Friday, cyber Monday and xmas shopping, eCommerce trends are worth looking at. And the conclusion is clear: DO or DIE.

From healthcare to security, AI will invade our lives. Get ready.

A review of recent investments in startups that build intelligent bots for messaging apps and other tools we interact with.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With 50% of mobile users that have not downloaded an app in the previous month (http://fortune.com/2016/09/16/smartphone-users-apps/), the future of our interactions with our mobile devices will be concentrated - limited? - to a small number of high profile apps from the big names - Facebook, Google, Apple. How can companies compete? They will embed intelligent bots to listen and converse with their customers, employees and partners using intelligent bots. Soon you'll be ordering pizza by chatting with a dominos pizza bot or getting stock tips for an automated financial expert. Believe it.

 

http://mashable.com/2016/09/15/dominos-pizza-facebook-bot/#mouHyNNwIOq3 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-find-a-financial-adviser-1420516873 

A look at the evolution of retail in the grocery industry, this paper provides insights on 7 key trends that impact retailers today.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The paper was written 4 years ago and is as relevant today as it was then. Are grocery retail CEOs listening? I fear not.

A very good review of the human computer interfaces and what the future may hold for us.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We cannot hold a mouse and keyboard in our hands to interact with physical world objects that have been digitized. Think of a warehouse employee that needs to interact with an automated shelves to fetch a specific product. Today we would use buttons on a mobile phone touchscreen. But would it not be simpler if we could simply interact with the shelves itself in ways that our body would recognize, then send appropriate commands to the devices we interact with? 

 

In the article, the far fetched story about the couple in a bar may not be very realistic but it provides some very useful insights about how to leverage our bodies to do things we cannot with our devices today, for privacy reasons for example. Very interesting.

Now anyone can make cool hardware and, thanks to Arduino, it is easier than ever to connect your devices to the Internet and take in data from the outside world. The ESLOV IoT Invention Kit is an official Arduino product that adds Internet of Things capabilities to your hardware products. Trying to build a connected fridge to beat Samsung? Go for it with the ESLOV. Want to knock Sony off its perch? Try popping an ESLOV unit onto your Arduino board and take on major manufacturers from your living room.

Describes a new set of hardware components to build IoT solutions.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It is with hardware devices like these that the penetration of digital in our daily lives will grow. In recent years, we've seen Arduino, Raspberry Pi and other hardware toolkits that simplify the prototyping and innovation to move the web, sensors, cameras, and other digital devices that bridge the real world with virtual one.

Outstanding 20 minutes video that explains what geofencing is and how to it, them in layman's terms.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We all carry mobile devices in our pockets so we are all targets for beacons and geofencing by retailers and brands. We were just getting used to being tracked everywhere we go online, and now we have become targets in the physical world as well. It is essential that we all know what level of tracking we are subjected to.

On the other hand if you are a brand or a retailer, you must know about beacons and geofencing and ensure your marketing team includes it in their digital strategy otherwise you may be missing out over your competitors.

Outstanding 20 minutes video that explains what beacons are and how to use them, in layman's terms.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We all carry mobile devices in our pockets so we are all targets for beacons and geofencing by retailers and brands. We were just getting used to being tracked everywhere we go online, and now we have become targets in the physical world as well. It is essential that we all know what level of tracking we are subjected to.

On the other hand if you are a brand or a retailer, you must know about beacons and geofencing and ensure your marketing team includes it in their digital strategy otherwise you may be missing out over your competitors.

As many of you know, my site was taken offline for the better part of this week. The outage came in the wake of ahistorically large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack which hurled so much junk traffic at Krebsonsecurity.com that my DDoS protection provider Akamai chose to unmoor my site from its protective harbor.

 

(...)

Today, I am happy to report that the site is back up — this time under Project Shield, a free program run by Google to help protect journalists from online censorship. And make no mistake, DDoS attacks — particularly those the size of the assault that hit my site this week — are uniquely effective weapons for stomping on free speech, for reasons I’ll explore in this post.

Brian Krebs exposes the attack his security blog has recently suffered, along with clear explanation of the attack and ways to prevent it.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It is by sharing stories like this one that we can all learn of potential danger that any website faces when a properly motivated opponent targets you.

Very technical summary from dropbox of their password encryption algorithm.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I expect all cloud service providers to treat my information as confidential, starting with my passwords. With the care and attention that dropbox protects its password, you can see how top tier cloud providers - Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook - will most often be more secure than anything you can do, even if you are a fairly large corporation. Trust cloud services as they are probably more secure than whatever your internal IT can provide. It is their bread and butter and their reputation - and ultimately their whole business - relies on it.

A reference chart of neural network architecture, with detailed explanation of each one. Very useful reference.

The article describes the process and its benefits to the company and its employees.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation let's companies change the way they have been doing things for years. This Warby Parker experiment is one example and there are many others in the startup and small business areas. However, large organizations have remained more traditional: why not consider your department or business unit as a small business or startup and start experimenting with ideas like this one or others?

 

Get inspiration in the following posts: 

- Buffer's transparency dashboard: Public salaries, equity and more: http://sco.lt/7sEunJ 

- How Google Sets Goals: Inside Buffer's Experiment with OKRs: http://sco.lt/85GzCr 

 

GE's industrial Internet means that in the future they may be best known for their infrastructure than their products and devices. Watch for it.

 

More importantly, the industrial internet and Predix tools came out of a strong digital transformation vision carried out by an exceptional Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Linda Boff. See her profile for more details: http://cdoclub.com/us-chief-digital-officer-of-the-year-linda-boff-on-digital-transformation-at-ge/ 

 

I wrote about GE industrial internet in the past: see here http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=ge 

Not sure what to read if you want to improve your ecommerce skills. Here is a starter list.

At TechCrunch Disrupt SF this year, famed iPhone and PlayStation hacker George Hotz unveiled the first official product of his automotive AI startup, Comma.ai. The Comma One is a $999 add-on shipping before the end of the year, with a $24 monthly subscription for its software, which Hotz says will be able to drive your car from Mountain View to San Francisco without requiring a driver to touch the wheel, the brake or the gas.

Read the article but you can skip the 7min video. For a better - and more relaxed - discussion, consider watching this 1hr interview full of descriptions of self-driving car insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zy_07g2IrM

 

For a more technical speech, view the Berkley presentation, even though there are elements that are redundant it provides additional insights into the technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxoke1lDJ9w

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

His approach is radically different than others and more "purist" from an artificial intelligence and crowd sourcing and I believe that makes his approach something to consider in other areas.

 

For more reading on the subject, this bloomberg paper also brings good insights: http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-george-hotz-self-driving-car/

 

Moreover it appears that Google lead is slowly shrinking: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/google-car-project-loses-leaders-and-advantage-as-rivals-gain 

Apple has filed a patent that describes a network to link to the various electronic devices we wear.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Our body will soon become the center of a digital network, connecting the devices and sensors we wear but also I assume the ones we will have implanted in our heart, brain, muscles, etc. Much like the enterprise and the car have needed a network to enable and make communications seamless, this has the same potential.

A very good introduction to the dangers of phishing email attacks, with good examples and humour that make it a good guide to share with employees as part of an information session of staying vigilant about those attacks.

Essential reading to understand the sophistication that ransomware has become today.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Malicious programs that encrypt computer files in exchange for money have become popular and they mark a new threat where end users are the weakest link. Companies should make sure that their users, employees and partners are train to detect and react appropriately when such an attack is detected. Noone is protected and we are all vulnerable. You have been warned!

Excellent paper examines the legal issues that companies can face when implementing voluntary or mandatory wellness programs in their organizations. Goes further by suggesting ways to prevent litigation.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We wear all kind of devices that track our behaviour and can help us get in shape and improve our well being. The more these devices become accessible and cheap and the more companies realize that they benefit from having healthy employees, the more we will see a pressure to include such devices and services. Questions and solutions raised here should thus be part of every digital strategic plan.

Just a great reference for graphical representations of often complex information. Can be applied to pretty much anything, including digital transformation.

A review of new tatoo-like devices that may soon replace wearable devices we carry with us today. 

It's easy for leaders to say they're serious about using technology to reinvent their businesses. Yet all too often they focus only on strategy and fail to leverage the tools and apps that could keep them current and spark new ideas for commercial use. And being hands-on with tech provides another key benefit: it puts you in the shoes of customers and employees, forcing you to think about the user experience.

So, beyond the AI tool in your smartphone, what other technologies can bring business insight—and help you streamline your workday to boot? Here's what some of the CEOs we work with use on a daily basis.

Tools to use if you don't already.

Reasons and resources to help you remain up-to-date on digital. I guess following my blog is one of them!

Facebook explains how it tests its data centers resiliency to failure by removing some during real world operations.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There are limits to testing you can create. Nothing like testing in real situations to ensure your solutions work! Then again, they are not making planes or heart defibrillators - domains where live tests could have serious implications, even kill people.

A video shot in 3D that you can experience with glasses or not. Great example of what can be done with 3D, other than shoot'em up games.

Brilliant idea: a website that gathers all the stolen emails and private information, then warns you if your email shows up on one of these lists. Essential tool. Use it now.

Whichever you select, use a password manager. Do it now.

Brian Krebs describes limitation of 2 factor authentication but also provides very important insights into how to make you more secure.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

2 factor authentication usage at dropbox is at 1% and we need to increase use of 2fa wherever possible and papers like this should help in reaching that goal.

A hands-on test of a telepresence robot aimed at seeing what limitations may exist for those wishing to use it as their avatar in real-life.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Robots come in many forms and one day we may want to have them travel on our behalf so we do not have to suffer the pain, delays and other downsides of travelling. This is an interesting trial of such a robot and I appreciate the author's viewpoint - for example when he describes being able to join his parents on a beachfront hotel vacation. As funny as it may seem, I think it may help someone to start to consider what may be possible and the limitations of telepresence.

Study demonstrates direct link between omni-channel maturity and corporate profits. Also provides an index to measure the omni-channel maturity.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies ask why invest and transform into omni channel. It appears that those with the most advanced omni-channel implementation are able to translate this into profits. Thus, omni channel becomes something you do to improve bottom line more than something you do to improve customer satisfaction, as is often thought to be the case.

Jeff Hawkins is most well known for creating the palm pilot handheld device in the 1990s. He also is a very intelligent man and neuroscientist. He penned the Book On Intelligence (http://amzn.to/2c1GBdZ) which provides an explanation fo the architecture of the neurocortex and founded a company, numenta (www.numenta.com), to implement this architecture in software.

 

Jeff recently re-published a 1986 paper he wrote which attending Berkley University where he presents his theory. This blog post provides context and a link to the paper which should be read as it presents his theories very well. 

 

I wrote about other ideas and solutions from Jeff Hawkins before: 

http://sco.lt/6Mpg8H

http://sco.lt/4lqtfN 

Amazon announces it will open 100 popup stores.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is one piece in the vision for the future of retail. Here are the components:

  1. great online store where you can find anything you want under one roof with a single payment and account profile - amazon.com
  2. 2-day free delivery - Amazon prime
  3. low cost delivery network based on grocery delivery - Amazon fresh
  4. small friendly stores where you can browse products, try them out, get help - Amazon popup stores (same principle as apple stores)

All retailers should copy this recipe. For example grocery supermarkets should shrink in size, provide customers with tasting stations and chefs and mini-restaurants (think Eataly) and cooking classes, along with butcher and other fresh produce. The rest (all packaged food that has a barcode) is delivered from a warehouse on a schedule right to your door at no cost if you are a member.

 

Also see Amazon's dedicated site for its popup stores: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=14303222011&tag=bisafetynet-20

Amazon and Morrisons grocery store partnership in the UK is growing. I can see it be very good for Amazon, but is it for Morrisons? Typical reaction would be to think they are inviting the enemy within their stores.  Maybe not. Here is what I think:

- Morrisons is a grocery fulfillment and distribution fighting to remain relevant in the digital age. Amazon brings orders and leverages its supply chain and procurement and expertise in buying fresh products;

- Amazon most likely will pay to host its lockers in stores, a new source of revenue;

- Amazon will bring customers to stores, something that is more and more difficult to do

- customers have an infinite aisle, able to shop online to Amazon when in stores, which may represent a new revenue stream

- competitors are investing heavily in money loosing or barely break even online ecommerce for grocery: morrisons can use this cash to do other, more profitable ventures, until the business model for grocery ecommerce becomes profitable

 

Who knows, this may be a wise move from Morrissons executives.

By 2035, workplace changes will see us looking for jobs as remote pilots or online chaperones.

This is the finding of an Australian report looking at megatrends in the workplace over the next 20 years. The authors of the report, CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), outline potential jobs in 2035, along with other impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on our working lives.

 

A review of reports on the future of the workforce and the evolution of skills required. It provides links to detailed reports and data.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you have kids, read this.

If you a making strategies beyond 3 years, account for these changes in your plans.

If you are a startup, ask yourself if you are contributing to the changes highlighted here.

Since the start of 2016, automakers, tech companies, and ride-hailing services have been racing to create a driverless taxi service. This service would mirror how an Uber works today, but there wouldn’t be a driver.

So far, the race has been brutal, as companies jockey for position by spending billions to acquire/invest in companies that will help make a driverless taxi service a reality. Uber recently took the pole position by announcing it would begin piloting its self-driving taxi service (with a driver still behind the wheel) in Pittsburgh later this month. But other companies, including almost every automaker, are quickly catching up as we reach the mid-way point in the driverless taxi race.

Promotion for a BI report on the subject of self-driving taxis

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I find the diagram useful as it categorizes component suppliers, mobility services and automakers, showing where apple, uber, google cross the lines. It gives a simple representation of where to look for innovation in this space. And I assume the report is also good ;-)

Excellent tv programme (in french) that reviews the robot penetration in business today and its potential impact on jobs in the coming years.

Interesting study. Reminds me of 1980s electronics class where I had to build a system with audio feedback. Professor surprised us by asking the sound to be "nice". We we re forced to add electronics that were there only to improve sound quality, not changing the basic task in itself. Few engineers then - and I assume now as well - go beyond the functional requirements to include human behaviour, pleasure, interaction, etc. as part of their designs. Especially not robots.

 

Well this study suggests that users will prefer those robots that are made to be "nice" and "human". Apple got this a long time ago. Others should as well.

If you are interested in the block chain technology and its applications, this is a great blog to follow!

Not a surprise but rather an interesting news snippet: dedicated chipsets for AR are starting to appear. This paves the way for lower cost, better quality solutions. Be aware, AR may become a reality in the coming years as forecasted...

Bloomberg video interview that provides motivations for the explosion on VR in the coming years:

1- applications are numerous, with opportunities in different space, not only in gaming but in medical, movie, etc.

2- big players are lined up : Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.

 

That being said, there have been multiple false starts for VR and #D (remember 3D TVs and google glasses?), so I remaining cautiously optimistic with both VR and AR. They may not be ready for consumer market but may expand into certain key niche applications and industries.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

In that context, it is essential for digital transformation strategies to consider VR and AR in their roadmaps. There must be clear business needs to drive adoption of this relatively immature technology which requires a number of user constraint (least of which is wearing a headset which makes you look like a dork and prevents you from living in the moment). But there are multiple types of industries where professionals can find benefits in viewing things in 3D in a lifelike fashion: those should be prioritized.

5 must read papers to understand where we stand in the area of direct brain communication with machines. In a nutshell; still very early.

Beacons promised to revolutionize marketing in stores. They were supposed to be everywhere by 2016 when they launched in 2014. Today they are nowhere to be found. This article identifies reasons for this, which are related to the immaturity of the technology and lack of operational support.

 

The post contains a number of very useful links.

 

Interested in a review of the potential for beacons? Then you should also read this post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-paul-neil/is-ibeacon-marketing-fina_b_10508218.html 

(in french)

Afraid that Google and others know too much about you? Want to know how to live and work outside of the major tools and solutions? This blog post offers a list of solutions to help you do just that.

If you are a subject matter expert (SME) you must read this. It enforces the need to report properly up the food chain in your organization in order for your work to be valued and respected.

Describes an artificial intelligence solution that monitors stock market and raises notifications when things are different than the predicted behaviour of the stock.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Our brain is a massive prediction engine, based on the work that Jeff Hawkins has presented in his book On Intelligence http://amzn.to/2caWZuk 

 

Applications from this brain architecture theory have started to emerge with this stock market prediction being one of them.

Must read for folks like me that aim to deliver thought leadership writing.

Google research on the topic of eCommerce includes so many topics that I use it as guidance on the different aspects I need to cover when building an eCommerce strategy: just look at the table of content below.

 

You should too.

 

If you don't have a Gartner account or would like a free resource, start with their primer https://www.gartner.com/binaries/content/assets/gml/ki-pages/research-primers/94142c1d-730d-4251-97c7-938ce27b304c_gartner_for_marketers_digital_commerce_primer.pdf 

or go to one of the major solutions such as Hybris to get access to analyst reports that favor them positively (!): https://hybris.com/en/downloads?q=:prioritySort:type:Analyst+Report 

 

Table of Contents

  • Analysis
  • Digital Commerce Market: Definition, Growth and Trends
  • Definition
  • Growth
  • Trends
  • Digital Commerce
  • Digital Commerce Platforms
  • On-Premises (or Hosted) Software
  • SaaS
  • Digital Commerce for Midsize Businesses
  • Digital Commerce for B2C Organizations
  • Digital Commerce for B2B Organizations
  • Open Source
  • Marketplace Commerce Sites
  • Digital Commerce Services
  • Digital Commerce Service Providers
  • Hosting Services and Managed Services
  • Digital Commerce Ecosystem
  • Distributed Order Management
  • Payment Solutions
  • Commerce Search
  • Web Content Management
  • Personalization Engines
  • Digital Analytics
  • Customer Journey Analytics
  • Digital Customer Acquisition for Service Industries
  • Marketplace/Channel Integration Platforms
  • Social Commerce
  • Subscription Management
  • Configure/Price/Quote
  • Master Data Management
  • Warehousing, Logistics and Fulfillment Service Providers
  • Marketing Automation
  • Assisted Selling
  • A/B and Multivariate Testing
  • Cool Vendors in 2014 and 2015

Crafting with CNC mills, routers and other power tools isn't all that easy, especially if you're new to it. You'll frequently want a template, and it's all too easy to mess up a cut if you haven't developed a steady hand. Shaper doesn't think it has to be daunting, though: it's launching Origin, an augmented reality power cutter.

This is a great idea: a power tool with intelligence that drives the motors and controls the drill bit, ensuring you cut to perfection every time. Basically you've become just a fancy motor for the tool to travel and perform its work. Brilliant. Watch the videos to see how it works for real. Expect to see more of this in the future: smart tools that go beyond the mundane to invade all aspects of the physical world, including in this case the construction industry.

 

Also: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/23/hololens-24-core-chip-makes-vivid-ar-possible/ 

 

Not a surprise but rather an interesting news snippet: dedicated chipsets for AR are starting to appear. This paves the way for lower cost, better quality solutions. Be aware, AR may become a reality in the coming years as forecasted...

To succeed in eCommerce you need to master one thing: delivering products to your customers rapidly at the lowest cost possible.

 

This is why events such as this one have become essential. I would even say that delivery is the single most important aspect of an eCommerce solution, as it is where your margins are made or lost. Ensure you have a comprehensive last mile model and you will be guaranteed not to loose money.

Excerpt from a recent book on how we have come to depend so much on GPS and other navigation technologies that it has changed our brains and sometimes has led to death. Interesting viewpoint.

An analysis of the current situation and predictions by the world economic forum of a new revolution.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We truly are on the verge of major digital transformations: not one but many, compounded, which will revolutionize everything. If you are a baby boomer near retirement, you can skip this. Everyone else, read on and take notes: you will be impacted.

A great blog on different elements regarding eCommerce, from strategies to solutions and statistics. Here, one post that identifies the issues that prevent ecommerce deployment.

Just watch the video and you'll see. We live in the matrix! ;-)

A detailed white paper from capgemini on how to improve the last mile, from your warehouse to the customer door and back if required. Full of ideas, strategies and solutions to improve logistics, returns, supply chain, etc.

The author argues that intelligence goes beyond mere processing power and that it will not be sufficient for computers to reach the singularity to have intelligence.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I disagree with the author but the article is well written and well researched. However I do believe that once sufficient power is available, the machine will start to "think", be intelligent, be creative, be self-conscious, etc. After all, any sufficiently evolved technology is impossible to differentiate from magic, as the saying goes...

Describes Elon Musk vision for a way to enhance human brain with artificial intelligence in order to ensure our race continues to evolves and not be replaced by machines (a-la Matrix or Terminator).

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This idea runs along the same lines as those expressed by Ray Kurweil in his must-read book the Singularity is Near. Technological enhancements will allow our bodies to be augmented with technology, soon making us part human, part robots. Interesting....

Intel unveils a new virtual reality headset and this article summarizes where the technology stands today.

A detailed description of the new computer chip by IBM that mimics more closely than ever the workings of our brain neurons.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

When Intel created the integrated semiconductor in 1971, it marked a revolution because it allowed electronics to be mass produced and operate at higher speed. Today, neurons are built using digital technologies and often are coded in software. With this chip, we have the opportunity to integrate many neurons into a single computer chip, and possibly achieve improvements in artificial intelligence.

McDonald's is giving away fitness trackers instead of gifts in their happy meals.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

1- fitness trackers have become so inexpensive they can be given away as toys - I assume this is also true for many other simple electronic devices. Think about it in your next marketing or sales strategy

2- Mcdo is using digital technology to change how people view the brand and their products. Brilliant.

One post from a great blog on all things related to eCommerce, Amazon, Google, and others.

Detailed description of UBER self driving car project. Includes a great "maturity level" chart from the US NHTSA.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We are entering Level 3 of 4 is the self driving car innovation.

 

More news on this topic here:

http://www.wired.com/tag/autonomous-vehicles/ 

A recent survey and study confirms that shoppers want to receive notifications on their mobile phones when they are in store.

 

related article: http://www.the-cma.org/resource/leadership/enhance-customer-experience

study: https://www.the-cma.org/Media/Default/Core/Library/Publications/Using_Digital_Solutions.pdf 

Must read for any leader, especially startups. In a nutshell: your employees need a goal and a purpose to pace themselves for the long run, not a bunch of sprints.

A single credit card that can emulate all your other cards. At 155$ and 50$/year subscription, it is not cheap but a great idea to replace all cards in your wallet.

 

I have not tested the device however.

 

A review of recent frameworks and APIs that Google has made public to help in the creation of artificial intelligence solutions.

Uber is rolling out self driving car development programme in Pittsburgh because that city presents a number of key challenges: bridges, snow, etc.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Self driving cars represent the biggest opportunity for businesses to reduce their costs and improve their logistics in the coming years. Uber, Google and others are at the forefront of this innovation and it is essential to track how good or bad the technology is so you can add it to your roadmap at the appropriate time. 

Summary of a panel discussion from a recent CDO summit.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

CDO role has been around since 2011 in certain organization. It is now time to look back and start learning from early adopters, as is the case here.

A lot of research is available about the IT talent shortage in the United States. The unemployment rate in just about any metropolitan area is close to zero for many functions, despite the recent slight slowdown in hiring linked to ever-greater cloud adoption.

 

12 TIPS TO SURVIVE THE TALENT CRISIS

Proven Advice from CIOs and HR Leaders

  1. Ensure team members feel they’re part of something greater than themselves
  2. Invest in coaching, mentoring, training—one CIO said he’ll cut headcount before he cuts his training budget. Curt Carver, CIO at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, sets aside 3 percent of his budget for training, “no matter what”
  3. Hire less for skills and more for emotional maturity and the ability to learn and change
  4. Offer interesting opportunities, such as working with the latest technologies or creating an application that will make a real di erence in customers’ lives
  5. Rethink the org chart and keep it flexible—Carver redesigns his every 12 to 18 months
  6. Redesign work around projects rather than roles, then tap into nontraditional sourcing methods such as crowdsourcing and talent platforms; not everything needs to be done by an FTE
  7. Use social media and speaking events to find and engage top talent
  8. Use open source as a magnet for talent by having your team become part of (and contribute to) the community
  9. Create affiliations with colleges/universities (course design, internships, etc.) and even K-12
  10. Invest in diversity programs that go beyond filling your corporate social responsibility requirements— for example, retaining women returning to the workforce or hiring individuals with autism
  11. Build a strong collaborative relationship between IT and HR
  12. Be clear about what you’re offering upfront (culture, mission, type of projects), and then be consistent in delivering that

A survey of CIOs shows challenges ir recruiting talent for IT organizations.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies focus on technical expertise and skills but recruiting millennials means that other characteristics are as important - if not more - such as attitude and emotional maturity. The old saying remains true: hire on skills, fire on attitude...

Describes how a hacker youTube channel with 90K subscribers and 5M views describes how to hack everything from credit card readers to garage door openers.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Hacking has become a past time for many and there is an industry forming around this new trend to help users with their hacking projects and solutions. Any digital expert would be well informed to follow such hacking gurus to understand what is possible, how it is done and - possibly - how to prevent it in their strategies and roadmaps.

A review of value based pricing and misconceptions.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformations often imply new products and investments, which require ROI calculation. Being able to use value based pricing can provide a formal process to determine future value of products and thus evaluate if the level of investments that should be made during the transformation.

A description of BlackBerry's QNX technology and how it can be leveraged to make cars more secure.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This article raises a number of concerns regarding car security and the need to consider that security from the design and not as an after thought. It also opens a new area for BlackBerry, moving away from phones and into another consumer market. This ay prove the beginning of a new era for them. Who knows...

Explains 5 steps to build a house using open source components. Is this the future of home building?

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Open source has revolutionized software development and other technology areas. Can it also be applied to real-life products? This is exactly what this is all about: revolutionize the way we think about our everyday products by having low cost options with no patents or protections. This should keep costs down and foster innovation. Watch out.

Olympics in VR is just starting. This article describes what it is like to look at volleyball in VR. and it is quite something. Actually it is part of a larger trend to push sports in virtual reality as described elegantly here: http://bit.ly/2aJv8lO

 

Describes how multisignature transactions can protect digital currencies - and the limitations of that technology.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Blockchain technology that is behind bitcoin currency remains immatures and open to fraud. I expect this to improve in the coming years as large FInancial organizations come to leverage this new tech.

The Western caricature of Chinese internet firms needs a reboot.

GOOGLE left. Facebook is blocked. Amazon is struggling to make headway. And if further proof were needed that China’s tech market is a world apart, this week seemed to provide conclusive evidence. Uber, a ride-hailing service that is the world’s most valuable startup, decided to sell its local unit to Didi Chuxing, a Chinese rival (see article). Its China dream, like those of so many before, is dead.

For many, the lessons of this latest capitulation are clear. China is a sort of technological Galapagos island, a distinct and isolated environment in which local firms flourish. Chinese firms are protected from external competition by government regulation and the Great Firewall. And that protection means that they need not innovate but can thrive by copying business models developed in the West. In short, China is closed, its firms are cosseted and their talent is for mimicry.

Provides context on the recent merger between UBER and DIDI for ride sharing in China.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

China has graduated to a real technology startup hotspot that competes quite well with Silicon Valley/Alley and others in the USA. When creating digital strategies for global companies and markets, you may be wise to prioritize China over the US as the new economic world order takes shape.

Summary post that explains what deep linking is and what it is used for in mobile devices and apps. Links to a full length report (for a fee).

 

WHY THIS IMPORTANT

mobile apps have limitations when you need to link to specific pages or products from digital mobile apps for examples. This technology and solutions such as Branch may provide a solution for digital marketing teams.

A very positive viewpoint on the potential contribution that enterprise architecture can play in a digital transformation.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

EA groups has historically failed to deliver the value they promised. Here McKinsey suggests they can be an essential team to bridge the business - technology gap. I remain sceptical as most EA groups lack the desired skills to communicate effectively because they focus on technology and infrastructure. Let's use this article to guide EA teams to improve and truly contribute.

Articles describes the Google goal setting approach called OKR which stands for “objectives and key results”. Buffer is a startup company that has applied this approach and describes its key learnings.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Google is a very large firm and yet it has manage to define a simple approach to set goals that trickle down the org chart to all its thousands of employees worldwide. And it can be applied in small organizations as well.

Additional tips like these are found in the 1959 book by Strunk and White “The Elements of Style” http://amzn.to/2ao6HtN 

 

One of the top 10 must read books in your life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style 

 

And if you're wondering, this has nothing to do with digital transformation, just something everyone should know and do.

A detailed how-to article on how to build a chat bot using Zapier, a popular online programming automation tool.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Robots or "bots" will become more and more common in the near future as they integrate seamlessly into our most common chat programs such as Facebook messenger. They will become popular because they allow any company to have a presence inside popular mobile apps and do not require any installation from users: they just type in requests and get responses in return. Directions, orders, and information will be streamed by those autonomous programs to help you fulfill daily tasks. This article highlights an important aspect of bot programming: they will become easier and easier to create, especially for common and recurring problems.

Starbucks customers in the U.S. and Canada are splashing less cash at the coffee chain than ever before. That doesn't mean that they are buying fewer beverages and snacks. Rather, they are embracing the company's loyalty card (which can be loaded with money) and app. The company has 12 million loyalty members in the U.S. alone and that means that Starbucks boasts a serious amount of cash on its customer cards. Wall Street Journal data featured in Market Watch shows that Starbucks has more customer cash than many banks have in deposits.

 

Before long, splashing the cash at your local Starbucks might become a thing of the past. 41 percent of the coffee chain’s customers in the U.S. and Canada now pay for their beverages and snacks after loading money onto their Starbuck’s card. With 12 million loyalty members in the U.S. alone, the coffee chain boasts more customer money on its cards than many banks have in deposits.

According to Wall Street Journal data featured in Market Watch, Starbuck’s customers in the U.S. have loaded at least $1.2 billion onto the company’s cards and app. That’s higher than the deposits held by Customers Bank ($780m) and the Green Dot Corporation ($560m). Starbucks still has a long way to go to catch Paypal which boasts a whopping $13 billion on its customer accounts across the world.

Chart shows amount of money held in cash by institutions. 41% of Starbucks customers pay using the mobile app.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Mobile payment is a great thing when done right. Moreover, coupled with loyalty programme, this becomes a huge profit generating machine (some of this cash never gets spent + payment fees to credit and debit card companies are lowered). So why has mobile payment adoption been so slow? Why are not more companies jumping into this bandwagon? Should credit card companies and Apple Pay / Google Pay / etc products be worried?

Rules that guide selection and priorization of projects in Google X, the innovation labs of Google that produced some of its most famous innovations.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Rules are different when you innovate and it is always useful to see which ones successful innovators break. Here it seems that the most important rule is acceptance of failure and very rapid decision making. Must read for anyone trying to innovate in his or her organization.

A review of trends, forecasts, market estimates and other predictions regarding Internet of Things.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

IOT has th potential to impact all industries, from consumer products to manufacturing processes to healthcare and treatment. Its technology and platforms should thus be included in all digital transformation plans from this point forward. Moreover, this represents a growing niche for new companies and consulting firms.

A short article on the use of 3D printing in fashion, with lots of links to follow for more details.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Technology permeates every industry and changes basic assumptions and business models. We often think this is limited to low margin commodity products but it looks like specialized, niched industries can benefit too. Look at your industry and ask, where can I apply 3D printing, eCommerce, augmented reality, connected objects, etc. in my company to revolutionize the way I design, fabricate, distribute, market, sell, support. 

 

Think of everything because everything is on the table and open for digital transformation.

A summary of the PWC 2015 digital IQ survey.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT 

Digital transformation has had a profound impact on the role of the CIO, with business unit spending more than IT on digital technology. This has been predicted by Gartner years ago and it appears to materialize now.

In that context, what should the role of the CIO be? This paper provides some direction.

An interactive chart that graphs 800 different jobs along with their automation potential - as estimated by McKinsey.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you are in school or just out of school, this chart should be of particular interest. For all the others, this is essential must read tooling when preparing strategy and planning for the future of your business unit, organization - large or startup.

 

Jobs with highest potential for automation represent opportunities for cost reduction, process improvements to reduce lead times, or creation of the automated tools and software that will replace them. For example:

  • medical appliance technicians: 100% automation potential. If you are in this field your business plan should include major shift from human workers to robots. If employees are unionized, look at contract negotiation and employee retraining. If you build medical appliance, ensure your hard-software appliance includes the necessary components to make this automation simple and effective.
  • sewing machine operators: 100% automation potential, 143K workers in the US. Replacing human by robot sewing machine is efficient but will require capital expenditures: has it been forecasted in your budgets? If that throws your business model out of whack, you have to think like a startup and "pivot" your company to a different yet adjacent space such as custom apparel design and fabrication.

And 798 other sources of inspiration. 

World Economic Forum survey of executives has compiled a list of jobs that are most at risk of being replaced by computers before 2025. The infographic shows a summary of the data which is available in detail here: http://reports.weforum.org/future-of-jobs-2016/ 

The company automated insights uses its AI tools to automatically write summary of baseball games (http://bit.ly/2a9g7qR), financial portfolio (http://bit.ly/2a9gG3T), and many other. This blog describes many of these applications. 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I wrote about automated insights in the past (http://sco.lt/7FRff7) as it was starting and have been watching ever since. It is important to take notice that AI has been hired by the Associated Press to write summary texts that go straight to the wire without human intervention (http://sco.lt/7FRff7). 

 

This is a trend worth watching as it means AI is slowing replacing human workers with machine intelligence in fields that were previously though impossible - here the redaction of human readable texts and stories. I wrote about data on why no job is safe from automatization and robotization (http://sco.lt/64xeyX).

 

Anyone putting together a digital strategy must absolutely consider the use of such AI tools in the coming years, and thus have a roadmap with trials starting as soon as NOW.

To address this problem, we began applying machine learning two years ago to operate our data centres more efficiently. And over the past few months, DeepMind researchers began working with Google’s data centre team to significantly improve the system’s utility. Using a system of neural networks trained on different operating scenarios and parameters within our data centres, we created a more efficient and adaptive framework to understand data centre dynamics and optimize efficiency.

Google uses artificial intelligence to analyze energy consumption in its data center to improve cooling and reduce energy consumption by 40%.

 

The paper also links to other most interesting links on data center operations including:

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Energy is the main cost of data center operations so this is great news. Companies should thus use this news to further move their computing to the cloud as large data centers - Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others - are way more efficient than anything even large corporations can do.

 

This is true for energy consumption, and I contend it is also true for many other areas including security and speed of implementation. It is essential that any digital transformation make cloud computing the primary de facto standard over any on-premise operation.

A bit dated but still a great reference for anyone looking for a good overview of the BI tools out there. Compared to Gartner, this list appears way more complete and trustworthy.

A report that highlights key technology trends in the insurance industry.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Always good to know what is hot and what is not in different industries. Take with a grain of salt, as with all predictions...!

1Atelier leverages a fully digital customer experience and strong back office systems to provide one-of-a-kind luxury handbags in 21 days instead of many months for traditional firms such as Hermes or Louis Vuitton.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Niche retailers and small handmade manufacturers should look into this new disrupting company for clues into how best to transform traditional industries that are based on hand-made, custom, high quality solutions and products. Going digital does not mean sacrificing customer interactions or hand-made manufacturing: it can revamp, improve and recharge the back office support systems and processes.

 

Describes the impact that LED lights long life - tens of years under normal use - has on the lightbulb industry. It raises concerns that new longer lasting technologies has on certain industries and compares it to the environmental impact of planned obsolescence. As with all New Yorker papers, this one is well written and well researched.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Lack of government regulations and incentives means companies often have to build planned obsolescence into their new products. Digital transformation, Internet of Things and many other technologies bring with them the issue of sustainable business model, which should be addressed early. Solutions such as repairability and services that go along with new products should be at the center of companies strategies when they look at new technologies.

Krebs explains how cybercrime organizations profit from the sale of companies they hack and gain access to usernames and systems. It also provides guidance on how to improve security in large organizations.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I find that too often we focus on individual hacks or threats but rarely consider security at a strategic level - assigning real cost to security breaches and thus looking for funding to address the biggest risks. Moreover, as is stated here, awareness training of resources may actually be a very effective - and relatively low cost? - way to improve security and protect an organization.

I wrote about the open culture of startups and this one - Buffer - has even consolidated in a single web pages all information about its salaries, equity, revenues, and more. 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Startups are redefining the way companies are managed and information reported. All businesses, large and small, should take notice, especially upper management, and HR.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Read the article. Pokemon GO is more than a game, the start of a new era where virtual moves into physical world more and more.

 

Also read "The brilliant mechanisms of pokemon GO" to understand why this is transformative http://tcrn.ch/29Nhtau 

 

Plus it gives new meaning to "kids go play outside" ;-)

Nice summary of the digital transformation and its impact on business.

Nintendo has release an augmented reality game pokemon GO, based on the very successful game in the 1990s.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

You must take notice for many reasons:

1- it is a game you game in the real world and may be the first of many to come. 

http://tcrn.ch/29Nhtau 

2- augmented reality can be used for this beyond games like training new employees, onboarding new employee (they discover your buildings or manufacturing plant), etc.

http://bit.ly/29NgBmo 

3- it is the new "social" where people interact in the real world with each other, and may leaves traces of themselves in the virtual world for others to see

http://bit.ly/29Nfe7i 

http://bit.ly/29Nl34E 

4- it is addictive: recent numbers show that the engagement is huge. It is bigger than tinder and has engagement beyond twitter

http://l.gamespot.com/29NfR0q

 

and many more I am sure. Shares of nintendo have taken a surge after the launch...

http://bit.ly/29NfAdW 

Amazon has invested heavily in warehouse automation to reduce costs and improve quality. It holds an event every year to select the best robots to accomplish warehousing tasks, this year to pick different items from store shelves.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Looking at the video it is clear that the technology remains primitive. That being said, with large investments made by Amazon in Kiva autonomous warehouse robots in the past, it is clear they are serious about warehouse automation.

 

It is clear that order fulfillment and delivery remain the 2 bottlenecks of eCommerce providers, adding costs and delays to the process compared to brick and mortar retailers. If Amazon could develop fully autonomous warehouses and have low cost delivery by leveraging Amazon Fresh grocery delivery trucks, it could have a profound impact on the viability of online pure plays and mark the decline in store-based commerce, which still account for 95% of all sales in the USA today.

Google will develop systems to detect eye health issues using neural networks.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With IBM Watson training to become a cancer post-doctoral specialist in Australia (http://sco.lt/5muqDh), there is growing evidence that the medical practice will be profoundly impacted in the coming years.

 

This is Capgemini business IT transformation guidance. In 146 pages, it presents cases studies of digital transformations and key technology building blocks that were used to deliver them.

Ranking of UK top digital agencies by revenue and number of resources. In this case, top does not mean best I must point out... Nevertheless, it is useful information to know what is happening elsewhere in the world and where the digital consultant budget go to.

Video that describes what blockchain is and its potential many uses.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It seems that the blockchain technology may be the source of a revolution in many fields from Finance and insurance to manufacturing and governance. Because it has such a wide ranging set of potential applications, it is important to understand what blockchain is, its limitation and its potential, so you are equipped with the knowledge to understand what is certain to be an huge amount of hype about its applications.

 

For more than just a 2 minute intro, I am reading Don Tapscott new book on blockchain : see http://amzn.to/29a8TVb

Using the Map

The Digital Marketing Transit Map is designed to identify the best sources for your needs and acquire systems that work well together. It will help you:

  • Identify the connections among business functions, application tracks and providers.
  • Find additional research or structure questions about strategy and best practices as well as providers, products, and selection criteria.
  • Mediate discussions between marketing and IT.
Interpreting the Map

Navigate the complexity of a fragmented and confusing digital marketing landscape. Elements of the map include:

  • Neighborhoods represent functional regions that can be thought of as practice areas within an organization.
  • Tracks connect regions and can be thought of as application services that share common objectives and information.
  • Stations represent interaction points that can be thought of as vendor and product categories that provide platforms and point solutions.
  • Intersections represent transfer points where solutions may serve more than one business area.

 

Gartner has mapped the different skills, technologies and functional areas that digital marketers should master.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Although I've never been a fan of the transit map analogy, I find this one captures one key message for marketing professionals: digital marketing is different than traditional marketing in the tools, technologies and skills required. As the diagram shows, they are more akin to software programming than they are of the traditional marketing curriculum. For those  that do not yet have those skills in-house, get help. For those that have the skills, make sure they are sharp and remain up-to-date because this technology world changes rapidly.

Gartner research provides 3 recommendations of digital merchandising.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Merchandising is the least considered element of the digital eCommerce pillars (others are strategy, marketing, selling, fulfillment and support). This paper reminds us that eCommerce relies on detailed, accurate, and timely information about products because it is what consumers rely on mostly when making buying decisions. It is thus important to include merchandising activities as part of a balanced digital transformation roadmap.

Summary

Gartner's 2015-2016 CMO Spend Survey shows that marketers are spending more on digital commerce. The survey also reveals marketing is expected to take more digital commerce responsibility. Marketing leaders connect programs and processes to the buying journey for digital commerce results.

Overview

Impacts

  • Digital commerce spending has grown from 8% to 11% of the digital marketing budget — the biggest increase of any category — indicating further expansion of marketing's role in digital commerce.
  • Forty percent of marketers rank digital commerce as one of the top areas where management's expectations of marketing have increased, highlighting the need to tie marketing to the customer buying journey.
  • Sixty-four percent of marketers rank digital commerce as a top area for marketing technology investment, pointing to the importance of technology that links marketing and commerce systems and processes.

Recommendations

  • Pivot from a marketing approach that focuses mainly on brand building, lead generation and customer engagement to take accountability for driving results through commerce transactions and lead conversion.
  • Sharpen your data-driven marketing skills to determine where customers are in the buying journey. Design marketing programs that lead to conversion and measure the impact of marketing efforts.
  • Integrate digital commerce into your marketing technology strategy by defining critical capabilities, such as segmentation and conversion analytics. Find providers that connect marketing to sales channels.

Gartner survey of marketing leaders provides insight into where marketing organizations spend their budget. Their analysis shows that having an impact on sales has become more and more important for marketing departments to demonstrate the value of their spending.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

No longer can marketing be just about drawing customers to the store doors. This survey shows that data and analytics now provides the means to measure the impact on sales that marketing activities provide and that leaders are asking their marketing department to demonstrate the return that their activities have on sales.

Fatal car crash of a Tesla on highway using automated driving mode. The post provides some information about the crash, which appears to be due to a condition that was never programmed into the system (side hit).

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Autonomous vehicles will become more and more popular in the future and this event reminds us of the complexities involved. We are very early in this field and much like aviation there should be formal investigations and corrective actions taken when such crash occur so that all manufacturers can learn from crashes. This calls for an international database of car crashes and there should be mandatory requirements for new self-driving systems to "pass" the exam ie. to ensure they all react correctly to previously seen car crashes and other incidents. 

 

This thus becomes an opportunity to learn from the global past experience of millions of drivers and billions of kilometers driven in all conditions, across all countries. I am not aware of such a central database but would expect it to become a reality if we want autonomous driving to be a transformation beyond what we have today: each driver learning for themselve.

3 simple steps that doctors - and everyone else - should use to secure their information and keep them private.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Is there anything more personal than your medical information? I assume not and thus would expect my medical professional to be aware of these 3 basic security principles and respect them strictly. However, it may not be the case and I would recommend this sort of information to be built into the standard medical practice curriculum because I would not want my doctor's laptop to be the weak link in my medical record transmission chain.

 

For other articles on this field: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/topic/cybersecurity

Alphabet new company called sidewalk has proposed a wifi kiosk that can be installed anywhere to provide a variety of services including: wifi, advertising, noise sensor, harmful package detection, amongst other. This is part of a smart city push.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Google focus now is more and more about bridging the real world with digital technologies. This new device and new company shows how important the field of smart cities is - very seldom does Google invest its energy into areas that do not have the potential to become billion dollar revenue generating endeavours in the short term. 

 

The most interesting aspect of this new product is that it blends together many different solutions into a single product. The kiosks serves as a wifi access point - which has often been considered alone - and blends with sounds, video and other sensors then merges advertisement to pay for itself. Brilliant! We need more devices like that, especially in stores where we often see single purpose devices being deployed as price check points or ipad based information kiosks. They could be so much more....

A 60 slide powerpoint presentation on Internet of Things, its current and future usage and penetration, possible uses, etc.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

IoT is a major trend which should impact all businesses in the near future. This is a well researched document that provides very useful charts for anyone putting together strategic plans and roadmaps. It covers a wide variety of industries and applications, which shows how wide and deep the IoT revolution could be. Must read.

Video that presents an autonomous robots performing household chores such as putting garbage in the trash can and filling the dishwasher, going up stairs, handing out a soda can to a person sitting, etc.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As far as I know, Boston Dynamics (Google) is one of the most advanced company in the field of robotics and as such represent state of the art in autonomous robotic technology. We can thus expect robots to play a bigger role in corporations in the coming years and robotics should be part of all forward thinking digital transformation strategic plans.

 

Looking at the video, one can only wonder what a swarm of those robots would change when you think about manufacturing (of course) but also product delivery, distribution logistics, surveillance, war, crime, etc. We are truly entering a new era where our world will transform with the introduction of of autonomous, always connected, machines that work and live (!) amongst us. Fro better or for worse...

Article that describes the efforts that Rolls Royces is making to develop autonomous ships in the near future. This appears to be a serious innovation supported by white paper and business case, although no prototypes have yet been built.

http://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/customers/marine/ship-intel/aawa-whitepaper-210616.pdf 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Although this remains an innovation project, it highlights how important digital transformation will be when applied to the real world, and not just email, websites and eCommerce. The bulk of our lives is spent in the real world and programmes such as this one and others will surely revolutionize transportation industry. And many others.

 

Companies that are serious about planning for the near term future (5 years out and +) should include these in their plans - which may require some leaders to think outside the box and look at areas they have considered outside the reach of computers and digital technology.

 

I wrote about Hyundai and Accenture working on connected smart ships in the past also : http://sco.lt/6xza9h

I also wrote about autonomous cars and trucks: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Automobile 

Explains how runkeeper uses eCommerce to reward customers and achieve impressive conversion rates of 4% to 7%.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We too often think of eCommerce in classic, undifferentiated terms: catalog of products, shopping cart, checkout. This paper offers an interesting twist to the whole thing, embedding eCommerce within the mobile app and unlocking certain products based on goals achieved by customers. Retailers should apply this approach to leverage their eCommerce platform beyond the classic website: behaviour-based rewards, special categories, loyalty-based commerce, mobile commerce, social commerce, etc. The eCommerce platform should become a platform not merely a transactional tool.

Connected health is the emerging industry that leverages Internet of Things to connect patient with doctors. Estimated at 117B$, this is a huge industry with as big opportunities for digital transformation.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation is at its most personal for all things related to health, healthcare, wellness, fitness, and anything that touches your body and your behaviour. Watch out for the changes that will come in this field for both opportunities and privacy issues.

Accenture proposes 6 steps to transform a business into a digital one.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The very generic ladder that Accenture offers is very disappointing. It could be apply to pretty much any business problem and does not reflect any expertise in the digital area.This is sadly the state of the art in the digital transformation spaces: a lot of very nice words and change management techniques applied to the digital world. Nothing that really leverages specific technologies or approaches. NO wonder executives are sceptical about digital transformation and view it as a buzzword...

Snapchat has been developing a pair of glasses with integrated camera, similar to Google glasses.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Google glasses have suffered from bad publicity (labelling wearers as "glassholes") because of possible privacy infringements. However, it is only a question of time before those devices make it to market and revolutionize social networks, memories and our ability to merge digital with real world. I believe there is a huge opportunity in businesses to leverage solutions such as wearable glasses for all kinds of work: repairs, training, security, governance and recording for historical purposes and audits. Is this time the right one for smart glasses?

Explain what dark traffic is - actually direct in google analytics - and explains how to reduce it in order to improve analytics results.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Analytics is an essential of digital transformation and very often the primary reason to go digital as it provides ability to monitor exactly what customers are doing, of ten in realtime. However, managing and exploiting the analytics data requires very careful analysis and planning and posting such as this one provides methods to improve the quality of your analysis and improve the visibility you get from your digital investment.

45min video presentation from 2009 that explains how Flickr development and operations team have agreed to work together to increase the speed and the quality of the code they deploy.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is the original talk that gave rise to the devOps movement. It is as useful today as it was 7 years ago, proving that devOps is a really important and profound cultural change.  I urge every developer to listen to itt, but also avery IT resource, including and especially CIOs. Then ask yourself: how can we do devOps in our own organization?

CIO index provides a series of reference documents, white papers, studies, getting started guides and other document that focus on all IT fields.

Every company has products, websites, systems and solutions that require a changelog to be kept to ensure end users know about the changes as they occur. This is the perfect tool for that.

Some useful tools to upgrade your digital life for the summer.

A blog post that describes tools and solutions to help become paper free.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There is no need for paper anymore and solutions like this show that it is possible to go paper free quite easilly especially given the ubiquitous availability of mobile phones and cloud internet access. I have been doing much of these steps since 2010 when I acquired a fujitsu scansnap paper scanner and started to systematically scan every document I receive via snail mail.

Overview of Microsoft open source technology framework to help create intelligent agents ("bots") in c# or node.js. 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Solutions like this will likely democratize bots in many new areas, from commercial solutions for large audience and niche products within the enterprise.

5 key recommendations

  1. Don’t reject BYOD — be prepared for it. Give your IT administrators actionable data on device ownership and health that can inform risk-based access control decisions.
  2. Encourage safe computing practices and good security hygiene, such as running regular security updates or using device encryption, passcodes and additional authentication to protect systems and data.
  3. Configure systems and deploy policies that enable automatic updates for as much software as possible to remove some of the friction that users feel when manually installing updates. We found that an overwhelming number of out-of-date browsers and systems don’t take basic steps like enabling automatic updates.
  4. Switch to browser platforms that update more frequently and automatically, like Google Chrome.
  5. Disable Java and prevent Flash from running automatically on corporate devices, and enforce this on user-owned devices through endpoint access policies and controls.

DUO security publishes a report on security findings from over 2M devices its software is installed on and provides recommendations from its findings

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Security is better, it seems, when users use software that update themselves automatically. Unfortunately, because enterprises have to pay to keep software up to date, most computers are out of date from a security standpoint. Leaders should prioritize keeping systems up to date or favour solutions with automated and free updates. As the paper describes, there are many out there, you just have to look for them carefully.

86 year old senior adds "please" and "thank you" in her google search queries thinking there are human beings that respond to her queries.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is both funny and so very sad at the same time. Funny to think there would be actual humans to answer billions of queries a day. Sad because it shows how "magical" digital has become. Most people - not just 86 year old grandmothers - are digitally illiterate: I would bet that most users of Google, Apple and other services could not say exactly what is automated and what still requires human interaction in much of the digital tools we use today.

 

Lesson to learn here: include a lot more change management in your digital projects. Not only to show what new gizmos are introduced with your new product or service but also a bit of background and knowledge and training and information about how things work. So that people understand the possibilities and the limitations and see your innovations less like magic.

C’était soir de première à Montréal, jeudi. Pour la première fois, cinq accélérateurs de jeunes entreprises technologiques s’étaient réunis pour que 21 de leurs finissantes présentent leur projet au même moment.  C’était une excellente idée et la soirée a permis de découvrir quelques petits trésors potentiels.

 

Comme d’autres, certainement, j’ai été impressionné par la qualité des projets des jeunes entreprises. Généralement, on peut en identifier une ou deux à qui l’on souhaite bonne chance sans trop y croire. Cette fois, peut-être parce que les présentations étaient très courtes et ne donnaient pas le temps d’entrer dans les détails (où se cache le diable comme chacun sait), j’ai l’impression qu’elles ont toutes une chance de bien se développer. La loi de la moyenne dit bien évidemment le contraire.

 

J’en ai particulièrement retenu dix, que voici.

 

(in french) A review of 10 startups in Montreal that focus on digital transformation elements.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Companies should look at startups and what they offer as part of their digital transformation strategic plan to have ideas and potential partners to test and pilot new ideas, solutions and technologies.

We Are All Software Makers Now

I think Joi Ito's TED talk about NOWISM is correct and a tsunami trend few understand or address. Right after the NOWISM wave comes the, "We are all software creators" wave. 

We love this line, "It is decidedly non-trivial for a company in a non-tech traditional industry to start thinking and acting like a software company." Damn skippy it is hard to become a "softwareist". 

 

Software engineers speak a different language, think differently than left brain creatives (most marketing people are left brain creatives) and want to engineer the world. 

 

The subtext of this well written and intelligently conceived post is find blue oceans or die. I'm mixing metaphors since the post doesn't contextualize using Kim's great Blue Ocean Strategies book, but the implication hangs in this post like a line separating winners from losers. 

 

 

 

An article that reminds us that software is everywhere and that all companies should focus on making this trend part of their strategic plan.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

The article focusses on 2 key elements: timing and focus. These are essential as not all industry move at the same speed. Case in point: book sales and grocery. Probably two ends of the spectrum, book sales have moved to online early and in a big way. Grocery: not so much. Actually, not yet. Because we all know it is coming, we will buy our staple grocery cans from a website in the coming years. Question is when.

 

And when this happens, when customers are ready and retailers find a way to remain profitable even when they do more work, then it will become a game of choosing the right products at the right price. Same as today. But with a different distribution channel. Focus will remain being a great grocer, not a great technology company. Or will it?

Robots have entered the operating room. These ones are performing stitches as well, or better, than humans. Surgeons will see their field impacted by robots in the next few years.

 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

There is parallel to be made between the rise of autonomous vehicles and surgical robots - any robots for that matter. What sounded impossible a few years ago - a self driving car - has now been made possible and tens of models are driving the roads of California and Nevada, soon others. Robots will not replace doctors anytime soon but you should expect to see them augment their skills and delegate certain less value adding task - such as closing a patient with stitches - to robots very soon. 

 

Anyone working in fields where there are lots of manual, delicate, precise tasks to be performed by humans should put in their strategic plans experiments regarding robots and automation in the coming years.

IBM website consolidates a number of white papers on threat security research and trends results.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Often we do not understand the real threats or fail to decipher the language and terminology that security experts use to describe the security risks that face companies as they move through their digital transformation. These papers provide a glimpse into this world - from one of the largest corporate IT firm in the world. That being said, take the solutions with a grain of salt because, after all, you know IBM will point you towards their products and services... But that should not keep you from reading them.

Companies across all industries are experiencing major cyber attacks every year. There's been 53 million online security-related events in 2015 alone,according to a report by IBM.

 

The bigger problem is that most of these attacks are initiated by "insiders," such as employees, business partners, or third party contractors. This chart from Statista, based on data from the IBM report, shows that 60% of all cyber attacks in 2015 were an inside job, with 44.5% of them designed by "malicious insiders."

 

The good news is that 15.5% of the insider attacks were done inadvertently last year, meaning that someone at the company mistakenly allowed an attacker access to the network. That figure has dropped from the previous year, which suggests companies are doing a better job educating and communicating how insiders could help reduce cyber crime.

 

Report by IBM indicate that most cyber attacks come from insiders - employees or resources related to the company. The IBM reports also present insight by industry - retail finance, etc.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Security remains a key topic in digital transformations. We often look for external threats from competitors or hackers in shady countries but it appears that people closest to you carry the bulk of the attacks. 

 

Education, training, governance are all ways to ensure that digital systems and information will be protected from those attacks.

Khan Academy VP of Engineering shares his thoughts on how to best introduce new technology in a project, and how to convince your team members to adopt it.

 

Also from this same VP of engineering, the very good Engineering Principles that are in place at KA and that should serve as baseline for any engineering or digital team

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PW4NYn9pYNam2EuGEsTN9pTgwTfFnT_R9OZLJJICWQU/edit?usp=sharing 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

New technologies are plentiful and it is always very alluring to use them as you hope they will solve all your problems (silver bullet syndrome). This article presents guidelines that all developers should apply to describe, communicate and pilot new technologies. 

 

Revealed in the state of internet report recently, http://sco.lt/5rSWR7, mobile apps and global internet growth have slowed down.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies struggle to deliver and maintain mobile apps for their organization. Data shows that getting that app downloaded has become more difficult. Once installed, evidence shows that usage is concentrated in a few well known apps from Facebook, Google and few others. Companies thus must ensure they include download and usage promotion in their mobile app budget. They should also ensure that they explore ways to embed their mobile solution into existing high-usage apps such as whatsapp, in the form of dedicated channels that can be automatically answered by intelligent chatbots.

US bureau of labour statistics releases historical data that shows the decline of the newspaper industry in favour of the internet publishing.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Less dramatic than previous charts that show the digital cliff that newspaper advertisement business fell in recently, this chart highlights the decline of physical delivery of news in favour of the digital delivery. Right inline with a post I wrote regarding the Digital Cliff in various posts http://bit.ly/1g5adjK (in french), http://sco.lt/5nD06r , http://sco.lt/6gOeWn , http://sco.lt/5Hfzlp 

 

Moreover, the bureau of labour statistics presents a large number of data and charts to help document the digital transformation. See http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/subject.htm 

 A 5 part guide on how to best manage email newsletters and mailing lists.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Email remains the most important communication channel to your clients and potential customers. This guide is very useful because it is simple and focusses on the basics, which unfortunately not every company applies.

A short video about the transformation that UBER, Lyft and other ride sharing and autonomous car driving companies are having on work, travel, car ownership, car design, etc.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Like the cellphone before it, ride sharing has the potential to impact companies in fields such as distribution and logistics. I expect this may be the most profound impact that "uber" model may have yet all the attention these days seems to be on end user benefits - taxis replacement - when the use of uber to deliver groceries at walmart may actually be the most important impact on our daily lives. No?

nvidia has transformed itself from a graphics card maker to a deep learning leader because its hardware can be leveraged to improve processing speeds of deep learning networks by a factor of 10x.

 

This website presents different tools, frameworks, links to introduction material and training classes to help user get started with deep learning. 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Sites like this will help democratize the use of DL in applications. So you can expect 

Just one example of the huge rise in mobile phones. Given recent State of the Internet report that indicates Internet growth is slowing down, and that mobile phone sales have levelled off as well, this chart reminds us all that people are starting to use their phones in many different context. So even if growth stalls, the usage and data consumption will continue to grow for a while.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you propose interesting uses for mobile phones, your clients and employees will use them. And they expect to use more and more in the future. So waht have you planned in your digital strategy to leverage, extend, grow the usage of mobile phones for clients and employees?

Jeff Bezos said during Code conference that Amazon will not get into the delivery business to replace partners - but will supplement it heavily.

 

I wrote before that amazon will get into the grocery food delivery business because it is the only way they can reduce their delivery costs - costs they have to give to fedex, purolator, USPS and others. So basically they will go into grocery business to break even and get free local delivery in certain key market areas. 

 

Recently, Walmart has begun pilot tests to deliver groceries using UBER (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wal-mart-groceries-idUSKCN0YP0H6?il=0). This sounds like a great idea, focussing on each other's strength (walmart = products & logistics, uber = delivery) with no investment to access huge volume. This option may not be as efficient as the Amazon model however but be a great solution in periods of high volume.

 

To see what I wrote about this, see http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=amazon+fresh 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Delivery remains the biggest cost for online retailers. Between 10% to 20% of retailer costs are sunk into delivery. This remains a huge hurdle for both retailers and consumers compared to physical stores. I expect online retailer to be more and more creative on the delivery front to reduce costs and deliver faster.

 

Established eCommerce retailers should look for opportunities to improve delivery and newbies to never underestimate delivery as it is the CORE to make or break their online retail business. Mark my words... 

Image aesthetics is difficult to quantify adn thus difficult for computers to do: how can a digital system determine what makes a photograph "good"? This paper describes how one company has used deep learning techniques to do so.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With results like this one, we must all question what is possible and open our strategies to include things that in the past have proven difficult or impossible to do. To be successful, strategist must however ensure that they have at their disposal the raw materials required to train computer systems. In the past this would not have been as important but today's new algorithm require massive amounts of data and the resources to train machine intelligence in a good way.

 

For s shorter, less technical version of this article, go to https://medium.com/stories-from-eyeem/how-we-trained-an-algorithm-to-predict-what-makes-a-beautiful-photo-e8de8bccd642#.f6u7gxxwx 

My friend PL Bisaillon raises a very good point: your digital product or services must be differentiated from that of the large established players. PLB highlights different ways that the cloud services industry providers can differentiate themselves from the large players like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Cloud solutions in particular and digital solutions in general will be dominated by large global organizations. For digital transformation, large consulting firms such as McKinsey, Capgemini or the big4 will certainly offer services and solutions that appeal to a large audience and global organizations. However, this leaves room for regional providers - french speaking ones in Quebec province for examples - or niche players that focus on specific industries or verticals - eCommerce as is the case for my organization FMCS.digital for example. Always good to be reminded that the world will not be a monolithic one composed solely of large players.

At 213 pages, there's a ton of data, but here are our Top 3 takeaways.

1) The internet itself is seeing slowing growth. In the past two decades, the internet economy was affected by macroeconomic trends, but it was external issues like the housing crisis and the financial crisis that were driving the slowdown. Now it is global internet growth itself that is slowing down.

2) Typing text into a search bar is so last year. In five years, at least 50 percent of all searches are going to be either images or speech.

3) The home screen has acted as the de facto portal on mobile devices since the arrival of the iPhone and even before. Messaging apps, with context and time, have a chance to rival the home screen as the go-to place for interaction.

218 slides of jammed packed information. Soon I will be able to blog one slide of this Mary Meeker State of the Internet annual presentation per day for the whole year. Wow...

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is an annual event for digital experts: the state of the Internet. This year, it focusses on deep learning (think voice+image recognition) and cars. Because really the Internet growth is slowing down. So is mobile phone usage. The trend thus appears to be what we build on top of the Internet and not the Internet itself. Finally.

 

Every company executive and board member should listen to this talk. Even if you don't understand everything you should ask yourself: how is our company positioned to address those trends? In most cases I assume the answer will be: we are not. This should be cause for concern and action.

 

For previous year presentations, go to http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?q=meeker 

As we get more robots into our lives and work environment, it has become essential to help them become aware of their surroundings. This is very interesting technology which highlights the difficulty to go from digital to the real world.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

All large organizations have been focussing their efforts lately to go from digital to the real world: Google with street view and autonomous cars, Facebook with VR, Apple with sensors of all type in the watch, etc. The future of digital is to penetrate the real world.

What are the latest emerging trends in education?

As trends to do, these are changing almost yearly. Consider how quiet iPads in the classroom have been recently, whereas three years ago they were going to replace teachers and were (unsarcastically) compared to magic. While mobile devices like the iPad can indeed parallel a kind of magic in the learning process, it obviously has to ‘fit’ into a progressive supporting ecology of assessment, curriculum, and instruction.

With that in mind, we’ve created a list of 15 (the graphic plus 3 bonus items below) new ideas every teacher should try. Not all will fit or work–again, it depends on the ecology of the classroom, school, and so on. But each of these ideas below–some learning models, some concepts, and some technologies–can be transformational for students, and your teaching.

Different ways to look at a classroom and interaction with students. Of course this applies to professors in college & universities but should it not also apply to businesses? All these solutions would make wonders to enhance boring business training classes. And if they are affordable for schools, should they not also be for businesses?

I found this book reference on GitBook. It is the textbook for the class at UC Berkeley and provides not only great content for anyone interested in Data Science (visualization, prediction, etc.) but also for anyone interested in self publication. 

 

GitBook is similar to GitHub, the open source software code repository that pretty much everyone in the industry is using. It provides not only the technology to create and publish a book online or as an ebook but also the social network and collaboration features you'd expect in today's world. Book content can be consolidated from multiple authors, versioned and commented by a network of colleagues or clients.

Useful data and insights from the US census survey. Essential for anyone thinking of going into eCommerce, the data shows the steady growth of eCommerce but its different penetration by category. For additional information on apparel retail, see also http://www.marketresearchworld.net/content/view/4681/48/ 

The link to the US census data will provide you with the actual numbers in excel format. 

http://www.census.gov/retail/index.html

McKinsey has indeed started to focus recently on the digital enterprise and the new ways of doing business it brings. This paper is valuable as it says digital really transforms the business, not just provides a technology solution for a specific problem.

 

Moreover, a whole series on "grow fast or die slow" explores how businesses can learn from digital corporations and digital startups, to change the way they do business. Must read.

 

http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/grow-fast 

Mobile is the future for most interactions with your customers. However it is more and more difficult to get your apps downloaded and used on a daily basis when you have to compete with Facebook, Google, Snapchat and the myriad of other high performance social tools out there. 

 

The solution may lie in the use of "chatbots", automated software that can respond to user inquiries via sms or messaging apps. This means you could have a customer service or ecommerce "bot" that responds automatically to customers inquiries they make using apps they have already on their phones and that they are using on a daily basis.

 

The video is quite short and provides examples of working products and solutions. I encourage you to listen and take note, then ask yourself how you can put this new technology to use in your digital strategy for the next few years.

Trivial recommendations but I assume not everyone knows about them, so read on, it'll take only 2 minutes and it may save your... data.

A better explanation of what snapchat is and why your kids are all over it.

This is similar to a game developed few years ago by the inventor of the captcha: use real people to categorize images using a game. http://www.wired.com/2007/06/ff-humancomp/

 

The idea was great - now deep learning and AI are taking over - but I assume there are still fields that required brain power to be harnessed.

 

In any case, if you have kids, it may be a good idea to suggest they look at the computer security field for a career...

This is not an article about grocery retailing but rather a demonstration of what the future holds for retailers and the stores they have.

 

With eCommerce, no longer do stores need to be mini warehouses with racks and shelves full of products. Today, eCommerce and automated picking can replace this more economically - remember Amazon mantra "your margin is my opportunity". 

 

What retail stores will become is more like an Apple store than a costco:

1- a showroom for your products

2- a learning center on how to best use your products

3- a help center to get you out of trouble if that should occur

 

Exactly the layout of an Apple store. What would this look like in a grocery store? Well something like the picture in this paper

1- showroom for perishable products like meat, deli, seafood, produce, etc.

2- areas for cooking recipes, sampling, promotions, tastings, etc.

3- areas to prepare cooked meals to get you on your way without having to prepare a meal

The rest - grocery products in boxes and cans - will be prepared automatically in a fully automated warehouse in the distance by robots who know what you've bought in the past and what you are missing in your fridge or need to prepare that recipe you just tasted. Delivered to your car's trunk in the parking lot.

 

Give it a few years and this should become reality....

Combine high-frequency lawyers with block chain technology and you could really have an impact on the supply chain of most organizations. Say a grocer is buying tomatoes or strawberries. Contracts are drawn months in advance setting prices based on quality of products and delivery efficiency. I assume that something like this would allow for terms of the contract to be renegotiated in real-time to reflect how good - or bad - the products and services are. Who will be the first to jump on this? Walmart? Kroger? Costco? Procter and Gamble?

Many marketers persist in subtracting acquisition costs before reporting CLV, which results in several ongoing problems. The majority of marketers we surveyed thought that customers with the same value going forward had the same CLV. However, this is not true when acquisition costs are subtracted from CLV before CLV is reported. A highly profitable customer can appear to have the same value as a less profitable customer if the highly profitable customer cost more to acquire.

Most marketers we surveyed also thought that you could calculate the financial value of a company’s customers by adding up the individual CLVs. However, this is not true if acquisition costs are subtracted before reporting CLV. When subtracting acquisition costs before reporting CLV, you do not report the current value of the company’s customers but their value less acquisition cost. To see why this matters, it helps to draw a parallel with other (noncustomer) company assets. Imagine that a company is selling an old machine. In this scenario, the company’s managers would expect to receive the machine’s current value, not the current value less what the company paid to buy the machine when new.

Very good explanation of the CLV and its calculation.

An 8 minute video that will make you rethink your hunt for free wifi in public spaces...

I had the intuition this was right as my personal experience with IGA very early showed growth of 25% YoY as the norm. This chart confirms it and may explain why Amazon and others have been trying to enter the market for so many years.

 

Grocery online is difficult to master: perishable products without barcodes mean picking an order is difficult to automate - not impossible but difficult... and costly! Remember that grocers have historically delegated the order picking to you, the client, pushing a cart across the aisles. eCommerce flips this model over its head and customers want grocers to pick and deliver their orders to their doors for the same price as before!

 

What happens: people start to think, start to innovate, start to transform the model. FreshDirect in NYC delivers high end high quality products - including perishables - but makes people pay for the service and the convenience. French grocers skip the delivery part and created in-store pickup service. Amazon looks at the whole thing and thinks, hmmm, if I can deliver groceries and break even then it means I have trucks on the road that can deliver all the rest of my orders for a marginal increment - that sounds like a great idea! Uber looks at this and says "hey, we have cars and drivers on the road already, we'll deliver the orders to your door in a few hours". And instacart is taking the uber model to send people to store to pick orders for you...

 

What does it mean? Growing at 30% a year, means it is on an exponential growth curve: things start slowly but when they become popular they explode. The hockey stick is near (or the singularity is near). Watch for it...

Consumers are shifting how they spend their money.

A Commerce Department report Friday showed total US retail sales jumped 1.3% month-on-month in April. 

And apart from car dealers and gas stations, there was another clear winner: online retailers.

The report showed that non-store retail sales — at places like Amazon and eBay — rose 2.1% in April from March. At the same time, department-store sales (excluding leased departments) rose 0.3%.

But the year-over-year trend showed an even bigger outperformance gap. Online retail sales were up 10.2%, the most among major categories in the retail sales report. 

Very interesting chart that shows eCommerce spend growing consistently since 2009, as opposed to in-store spend which remains stable or decreases. 

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you don't have an eCommerce offer then you are missing sales. Each retail category has a different eCommerce penetration, so your mileage will vary and you should adjust your investments accordingly. (http://sco.lt/6q1Ijx)

 

For example, if you sell electronics and apparel, then you should be online right now with an aggressive marketing and SEO strategy to stay on top of the market. 

 

Conversely if you sell perishable food products, you can probably manage to leverage a prepackaged solution such as shopify.com and market your online offering to your existing in-store customers and a good mailing list.

This is a very good run down of what you'll find out when you go to google history or google dashboard to find out what Google knows about you.

history.google.com/history

https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard 

 

That being said, and as i've noted before, this is not everything they know about you: Google infers a lot from your web activity outside the realm of google properties via the ad beacons they place all over the web. Moreover, Google predicts and creates a user profile of you - and this information they do not share with you!

 

Also see other article abour this same topic:

how google mines your data: http://sco.lt/6nPe2z

15 ways google mines your data: http://sco.lt/5mlk5B 

voting is obsolete: http://sco.lt/5GmLVh 

or anything about privacy: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Privacy 

Very interesting demonstration of what can be achieved with augmented reality and a ping pong table. I always wonder why there are so many great entertainment demos and so few business ones. This can be so beneficial in manufacturing, production and other environments where workers have to make repetitive tasks or get trained on physical objects.

 

In this issue:

  • Technical Debt: The Continued Burden on Software Innovation — Opening Statement
  • Technical Debt: It’s Not the Real Problem by Declan Whelan
  • Using Technical Debt to Make Good Decisions by John Heintz
  • Managing Technical Debt with the SQALE Method by Jean Louis Letouzey
  • The Psychology and Politics of Technical Debt: How We Incur Technical Debt and Why Retiring It Is So Difficult by Richard Brenner
  • Addressing the Hidden Obstacles to Innovation and Digital Disruption by Ram Reddy
  • Vendor-Driven Technical Debt: Why It Matters and What to Do About It by Mohan Babu K

Click here to edit the content

technical debt remains a subject that is too often misunderstood or not taken seriously. This report from Cutter brings together key papers on the subject.

Amazing interview about the potential of blockchain technology to revolutionize business, not just banking but all industries.

eCommerce market and trends study by AT Kearney in 2015. The report highlights eCommerce penetration worldwide but also indicates the high variability of eCommerce penetration by industry categories. Electronics, books and apparels top the list while grocery is a the bottom. No surprise here.

Face recognition, gender detection, and age estimation are all now possible with this open source suite of software code. This should pave the way for wide adoption in all kind of applications, from retail store security cameras to hand held camera devices such as the narrative camera or others. I can think of so many use cases - both good and bad - where this technology can be deployed. Just a question of time...

 

http://getnarrative.com/

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/parashoot-smart-wearable-video-mini-hd-camera 

http://www.getperfectmemory.com/ 

 

This post has little to do with digital transformation but given my past experience and the large number of startups that focus on digital, transformation, disruption (or all of them) I though this post worthwhile to share.

 

Moreover, the reasons posted focus on few things: business model and funding. My company failed because of the business model. Yours?

Siri made the world aware of the potential of virtual assistants, but several years after its release, it's still a bit basic. Siri can only do certain very specific tasks, and she doesn't play well with third-party services. So for their next product, Viv, the people behind Siri aimed to build a much more capable virtual assistant. And at this point, it looks like they've succeeded, judging from a brief demonstration today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City.

Presenation of viv, a personal assistant technology from the makers of iPhone siri. But much better. Listen to the 15min video to see what is possible and a glympse into how it can be developed. You'll feel like you've peeked into the future...

 

One of the most interesting demo is what they call voice commerce, where you can order very easily flowers or hotel room. I can only imagine what I will be able to do with this technology to create grocery shopping lists!

Millenials are shopping differently than older generations. They see the value that comes from eCommerce solutions. Retailers thus should rethink their business models along the lines that innovating companies such as amazon fresh do.

 

Here are the reasons this millenial calls "perks" for using amazon fresh vs. walmart or other grocers. Take note:

- High quality produce
- Similar, and sometimes better product offering (for me anyway)
- Rotating inventory of local restaurants and vendors
- Custom home delivery time (with $4 suggested driver tip)
- Tracks purchases and gives recommendations
- Amazon Dash uses voice and barcodes to track groceries
- Compatible with the rest of Amazon inventory
- Comes with Prime free two day shipping and Prime Video.
- Dedicated mobile app (no need for grocery lists anymore)

 

The paper behind yesterday's spotify videos on their agile structure.

Amazing two 15 min videos describing the engineering culture and organization of teams at spotify. In a nutshell they give team full autonomy to deliver products all the way to production, thus eliminating the possible excuses that one can have for not being able to reach their targets. AMAZING structure and video. Must watch.

 

And this does not apply only to startups. Established companies should consider re-organizing their teams based on the agile principles that spotify puts forwards. The projects that I see failing or suffering from delays and bloat in large companies I see around would be in much better shape if they implemented similar structures....

Some data from Google that sheds light onto steps they use to protect our privacy and make us secure.

Take time on this mother's day to read this and install snapchat. You'll be able to discuss it with your teenager over lunch or dinner to understand why they are all using this tool over Facebook, and twitter, and other social networks. In a nutshell: because what you post is there for 24 hours, you are allowed to make mistakes. Exactly what teenagers experimenting with life is all about.

 

Should we have a snapchat for business? Would that make your colleagues use your internal company social network?

Give yourself a gift and celebrate world password day: change your password this weekend. You won't regret it!

Même si vous êtes en retard, profitez-en ce weekend pour fêter et changer votre mot de passe: il n'est jamais trop tard pour être en sécurité!

This guide by Google presents 25 design principles to use when creating a mobile app or website.

It will be 20 years since I launched the IGA eCommerce solution. I was too early for sure. Now it looks things may be moving in the right direction. Will online grocery be the last frontier for eCommerce? It sure looks like it!

I love Google and their products. I love how they've pushed the enveloppe to draw digital into our lives. And I also know enough about what they do with the data to be careful. This article is great because it lists some of the most common ways in which Google tracks info about you.

 

Today, I don't mind about this invasion of my privacy, because what they do with the data seems pretty harmless to me - even maybe can be considered a service - which is to target better ads to me.

 

What is really scary is not what Google does with my data: after all, they are being scrutinized by so many and their business model depends on not abusing the information they gather about us. However this is not be true for the other companies that track information about me and do not share the same prying eyes as Google does: Apple? Facebook? Mastercard and Visa? Walmart? Governments?

 

THAT is something to worry about...

A long read from a well respected psychologist on the power that Google employees have because of the amount of data the company accumulates. Must read for anyone interested in real-world examples of things that can go wrong with Big Data and data science.

Absolutely great essay on the power that Google - and other companies with access to our personal data, including Apple - the power that Big Data gives companies and potentially even to candidates. In a US election year, and with recent Netflix House of Card season, one can only be cautious that so much creativity not reflect a certain reality...

This guy is obviously biased towards Magento but it is nice to see different solutions compared as is the case here. In particular, look at slide #9. Thank you Francois Medioni for the reference.

Marketers who have started to do content marketing typically find themselves doing topic research via myriad analytics tools, managing editorial calendars in excel, handling workflow with writers and creative via email, publishing content via separate blogs and websites and promoting it with existing, but usually disconnected marketing automation and social media tools (that’s if they aren’t doing any paid promotion). At scale, this breaks down.

Enter the Content Marketing Platform (CMP) where players like Newscred, Skyword, Kapost, Curata, Percolate (whose ambitions seem to reach beyond content marketing) and more have built tools to help marketers get a handle on the creation process. But most have stayed away from competing with either the Web Content Management (WCM) or the DAM players which are made up of a group of established names.  The most common content marketing tech stacks observed in enterprise clients (clients see Content Marketing Point Solutions Bring Agility to Web Content Management Workflows) is a combination of either:

CMP + WCM + Marketing Hub/Marketing Automation + Content Marketing Point Tools
CMP + WordPress (in addition to branded website) + Marketing Hub/Marketing Automation + Content Marketing Point Tools

A great blog post that sheds light into the murky waters of marketing tools and solutions to manage content. Specifically, it speaks of web content management (WCM), digital asset management (DAM) and contentn marketing point (CMP) tools, amongst others.

 

Ties in great with the recent posts on marketing tools universe here http://sco.lt/6ir5EH and here http://sco.lt/8dD2WH 

(in french, english here)

Canadian Tire follows the likes of IKEA catalogue, real estatetechnical publication, tourist guides and other applications to extends its paper catalogue with additional information using mobile phone technologies. Not sure the IKEA project received huge success but again this was 2013 and a lot has changed in the past 3 years.

 

With virtual reality (VR) being trumpeted as the next big thing, Augmented Reality (AR) may actually provide something more useful and less intrusive - thus leading to faster and larger adoption? Microsoft hololens project sure thinks that way.

 

http://bit.ly/1SEJeS8 

http://sco.lt/6g6TZp 

http://conference.corp.at/archive/CORP2013_128.pdf 

http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/docs/whitepapers/AR_printing_whitepaper_en.pdf 

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Augmented+Reality 

Games can provide a platform for more serious work than just play. Here, the minecraft game is being reviewed but so is the case for the unity 3D game engine, the market leader, has a whole category of non-games applications developed using their engine, from medical to food cooking applications

Been tracking this technology landscape since its beginning in 2011 when it only referenced 150 companies. This remains one of the best tool to make CMOs and other executives understand that marketing is technology enabled and a leader in digital transformation in the organization.

Amazing reference of over 800 companies that deliver solutions for marketing automation and other marketing activities.

The future of eCommerce where your fridge automatically adds salmon to your weekly grocery basket because it has just gone on special and you are low. Sounds futuristic but really it isn't.  And much better than having to go through a catalog of product.

 

Retailers should thus emulate Tesco to make their product catalog more open and easier to connect to.

In the age of the customer, merchandise availability and lead time are critical di erentiating elements
of the customer experience. Existing and new technologies provide both the threat and opportunity for retailers and brands of unprecedented availability and lead-time transparency. Application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals have to help their line-of-business leaders to understand which logistics capabilities they can outsource and which are core to their brand value. For such distinctive capabilities, they must decide which types of supporting applications and which enabling technologies they should deploy to deliver the channel, local availability, and service-level lead time to support their brand promise. is report provides an overview of key logistics technologies, their level of maturity, and the opportunity they present for both users and vendors.

Amazing review of OMS, PIM, inventory management and 20 other applications that are key to transform the digital logistics in any organization.

Looks like software really is everywhere. Scientists have successfully used techniques from the microelectronics industry (verilog, silicon compilers) to codify and genetically modify bacteria to detect certain conditions such as e.coli viruses. Will the future of genetic engineering become energized as much as the microelectronics industry was when silicon compilers were introduced? I assume it will.

What is the weather today? You don’t need to be a meteorologist to answer this question. Just take a look outside the window. Macroeconomists do not have this luxury. The first official estimate of GDP this quarter will not be published until the end of July. In fact, we don’t even know what GDP was last quarter yet! But while we wait for these crucial data, we float in a sea of information on all aspects of the economy: employment, production, sales, inventories, you name it. . . . Processing this information to figure out if it is rainy or sunny out there in the economy is the bread and butter of economists on trading desks, at central banks, and in the media. Thankfully, recent advances in computational and statistical methods have led to the development of automated real-time solutions to this challenging big data problem, with an approach commonly referred to as nowcasting. This post describes how we apply these techniques here at the New York Fed to produce the FRBNY Nowcast, and what we can learn from it. It also serves as an introduction to our Nowcasting Report, which we will update weekly on our website starting this Friday, April 15.

Federal Reserve of the US has launched a tool that predicts the future by predicting the US gross domestic product daily. Great use of Big Data and a signal that all corporations should include financial predictions in their systems plans in the near future.

A run down on different business models to shoot for if virtual reality is in your future. Useful to help foresee where this technology may become useful in the future....

Facebook is moving outside the social network real to move into other fields: AI, VR, connectivity. Limited info at this time but useful as it means Facebook will become more and more essential to include in your digital plans.

I pride myself on being "techno friendly" and futuristic, an early adopter of all things technological and digital. Then I receive the ToughtWorks technology radar and realize I know none of the solutions on the radar. Then I say: time to get to work and learn about these things. And you should too.

The article lists a number of new products to measure baby data, especially the number of words they speak during the day. The objective is to encourage parents to speak to their child more and more often, as studies suggest.

 

Nonetheless, quantified self and quantified baby solutions are bound to raise a number of questions about usefullness and privacy. Stay tuned, this is just the beginning... ;-)

 

More on this here: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Quantified+Self

After the Microsoft chatbot Tay became racist and was forced to be turned off, the question of how to make robots ethical resurfaced. This article reviews why it is important for robots to be moral and ethical and what it means. 

 

With a future composed of medical robots and self-driving cars, this question will become essential and we may have to choose digital solutions based on how they react under certain edge use cases.

When you make eCommerce and digital your central focus, as I do, you look for key trends to guide your strategies and roadmaps. This data is one of those key trends. It means that people find Amazon Prime to be convenient and cost effective.

 

If you are setting up for eCommerce and are struggling with delivery fees you should charge, then this should be your guide: people will pay to get "free shipping", and when they do they will spend more than twice what others will. You, as a retailer, win on both fronts.

A very geeky weekend project that has a multitude of real-world applications in manufacturing, distribution, logistics, etc. IBm describes how they have designed and built a food pantry inventory tracking system based on internet of things tools and solutions.

Haier is a Chinese consumer product manufacturer - products like air conditioners. They have taken the digital approach wherever they could for example, leveraging crowdsourcing to design new products. And it works.

Detailed explanation of augmneted reality are starting to come out.

If anyone still doubts mobile is a revolution and is everywhere then this 76 slide presentation should convince you. For others like me, this is chock full of amazing insight and data. Make every manager and executive you know read this.

Contrary to ppopular belief, many tasks performed by high pay employees such as CEOs can be automated. MacKinsey proposes a meticulous approach to identifying which jobs can be automated in an organization. Must read for any executive looking to embrace digital it the organization beyond the mere marketing activities.

Hearing so much about deep learning, Big data, and artificial intelligence these days it is useful to review some of the myths and set the story straight.

Creating a website has become truly simple and easy. And a must as part of any digital transformation. This is a great reference of some of the solutions out there to help you create simple and beautiful personal, corporate or project websites.

Every company needs a data science team with sole purpose is to explore company data to extract value.

Great list of solutions to help your solutions, websites and ecommerce platforms be more customer centric.

I am about to try this new AI assistant but the concept is just mind blowing, given the difficulty I have scheduling meetings with my collaborators. We'll see how good the technology really is but in any case, it is just a metter of time before this becomes the norm everywhere.

Wearables will indeed required better adapted electronics and batteries. Here is one kind that may make it to producton in the near future.

Finally! Been saying CDO position does not make sense for so many reasons, most important is that their role overlaps with that of CIO and CMO, just to name two. For a CEO, this creates a huge challenge: who to ask and who to blame when digital projects fail. CDO role just creates confusion.

 

Unfortunately, CDOs remain required in many organizations where the CIO or the CMO does not want to take on the responsibilities to transform the organization.

Ecommerce illustrated is a great reference for what to do when creating an ecommerce website. Can't wait to see what the book looks like.

Great list of breakthrough and predictions regarding robotics. I expect robotics to have a huge impact on businesses beyond manufacturing, in areas such as distribution, logistics, and tasks that used to require humans.

A great study to read!

A great study to read.

Video has become a useful tool in our digital lives and this vimeo channel curates the best ones as they relate to technology in general, digital technology very often being highlighted. A nice reference to browse for ideas and new subject matter. 

(in french) Thought this was a great how-to list on steps required to digitize a pharmacy.

The impact of AI on businesses have already started.

With Google beating a human player in GO, AI has leaped ahead of predictions. This article looks at the implications of that acceleration.

A great report that introduces in laymens terms the block chain use case, technology, governance and other concerns one may have about this new technology with far reaching impacts.

Amazing description of blitzscaling, an approach that is used by digital transformation startups to grow extremely quickly. This is must-read for any entrepreneur. It is even more so for executives in traditional organizations because this is the recipe book their disruptors will be reading - from uber to airbnb. Amazing read.

Amazing video presentation of what future video conferencing may feel like with augmented reality.

Google acquired Nest, the manufacturer of smart thermostats. Its "Works with Nest" initiative has defined a solution that can soon see Google in charge of your whole home automation.

 

This is a good thing as smart devices should be connected and the possibilities that this networking offers are amazing (see the other articles for certain use cases that will soon be possible).

 

As with other Internet of Things improvements, security and information privacy must be front and center.

 

See also

http://www.appcessories.co.uk/works-with-nest-best-compatible-devices/

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/nest-embraces-good-ol-yale-locks-make-smart-homes-smarter/

 

This article suggests that Amazon is creating a UPS/FedEx competitor offer to distribute parcels to end users. The article provides some very interesting data, and links. Other links include 

 

I don't agree Amazon would create a competitive offer. However I believe it makes sense for them to deliver packages in 2 use cases:

  1. create an internal distribution logistics infrastructure to fulfill its warehouses and transfer packages from its own locations;
  2. distribute to end users using grocery delivery solution as the baseline to get trucks on the road and effectively get virtually "free" delivery. A recent report indicates Amazon will be in the top10 grocer by 2019: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-17/one-wall-street-firm-says-amazon-is-about-to-feast-on-the-food-and-beverage-market

 

I wrote about this in the past here: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=amazon 

A review of 40 marketing automation guides. Great starting point or reference.

Fascinating report that highlights the importance of design in digital corporations but also in traditional ones.

More information about blockchain, which now appears to be a revolution in many fields including Finance. With IBM open sourcing code that provides the raw ingredient for any company to create its own solution. This is something we should all become aware of and know as it will most likely be at the heart of many transactions in the future, not just monetary ones.

A rant on the failure of banks to push into the digital world when it comes to payments systems, and in particular credit cards. Funny article.

A great article on how this engineer is working on laser tracking device. Having myself been involved with 3D target tracking using a pair of CCD cameras and a PC - with computing done in assembler, as this was circa 1986 (!) - I can relate to the work they are doing and the challenges they face.

 

Being a microelectronics egineer as well, I am well aware of those silicon based mirrors they are using and their potential. Called micromirrors and invented in 1987, they have been around for a while and I am surprised they have not been put to use in the VR industry yet.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_micromirror_device

marketingIO: One Source for All Marketing Technology Challenges. See our solutions

Marketing automation field has been expoding in past few years, testimony to the fact that marketing groups have been pushing the digital transformation the most in organizations. This report provides some useful hints as to the tools that now equip the marketing teams - or should in the near future.

Useful list of reference websites for technology professionals.

Everyone is talking about blockchain, the technology underlying the bitcoin currency.This short video explains in layman's terms what the technology is all about.

 

For a more detailed explanation, see the following:

You have a secret that can ruin your life. It’s not a well-kept secret, either. Just a simple string of characters that can reveal everything about you.

 

DON’T

  • Reuse passwords. If you do, a hacker who gets just one of your accounts will own them all.
  • Use a dictionary word as your password. If you must, then string several together into a pass phrase.
  • Use standard number substitutions. Think “P455w0rd” is a good password? N0p3! Cracking tools now have those built in.
  • Use a short password—no matter how weird. Today’s processing speeds mean that even passwords like “h6!r$q” are quickly crackable. Your best defense is the longest possible password.

DO

  • Enable two-factor authentication when offered. When you log in from a strange location, a system like this will send you a text message with a code to confirm. Yes, that can be cracked, but it’s better than nothing.
  • Give bogus answers to security questions. Think of them as a secondary password. Just keep your answers memorable. My first car? Why, it was a “Camper Van Beethoven Freaking Rules.”
  • Scrub your online presence. One of the easiest ways to hack into an account is through your email and billing address information. Sites like Spokeo and WhitePages.com offer opt-out mechanisms to get your information removed from their databases.
  • Use a unique, secure email address for password recoveries. If a hacker knows where your password reset goes, that’s a line of attack. So create a special account you never use for communications. And make sure to choose a username that isn’t tied to your name—like m****n@wired.com—so it can’t be easily guessed.

An old Wired magazine article from 2012 that is still as current today as it was then. Unfortunately.

 

If you don't read the whole thing, just skip to the DOs and DONTs.

And read these other articles: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Security

Amazon is by far the largest online retailer. If its shipping costs are growing, as they appear to be, all other retailers should take note as they should expect the same.

 

This analysis suggests that we have started to use Amazon to buy smaller products more often, which in turns cost more to be delivered compared to the price of the item. Thus the surge. This may indeed be right, as Amazon Prime cuts down on the incentive to increase basket size to get free delivery.

 

So for Amazon the solution may be to increase the Amazon Prime membership price, open physical stores (as they have announced) or accelerate its deployment of local distributiuon centers to get closer to customers - thus reducing delivery costs, and delays. Or do all three!

 

For other retailers, the solution may be as simple as keeping the minimum order size to a high enough value that ensures sufficient margin to account for the free delivery costs.

I can't believe this one, must be a publicity stunt!

 

That being said, the video is hilarious even though the concept is absolutely ridiculous.

 

That being said, the idea of dog activity trackers is a reality, as exposed previously here: 

http://sco.lt/538C13

http://sco.lt/5PQlrF

 

As they say, this solution is both brilliant and scary. It speaks to the power of using mobile phones, geolocation and big data.

I've been using the business model canvas and the value proposition design for a while now and wrote about them previously: http://sco.lt/5S3DRh

 

Looks like Strategyzer have come up with another great little tool to put in your business modeling toolbox. USe it, it seems simple enough!

McKinsey proposes a new digital strategy framework to help guide the discussions regarding digital evolution or revolution in your organization. Listen to the short video for high level explanation of the framework, then dive into the article for more context and explanation.

Bosch is launching its own cloud computing services for the Internet of Things, with the first cloud facility to be located in Germany.  The company is the latest to join the IoT bandwagon by becoming a full service provider for connectivity and the Internet of Things.  Currently, there are at least 5 million devices that are working with Bosch's IoT Suite. These include the staples of a connected home such as a central hub and contact sensors between the door and window.

 

It is interesting to see that companies in the non technology space - like Bosch - are investing heavily to be positioned for the year 2020, where they expect IoT devices to start taking hold. What are all the others doing?

Companion post to my previous one here: http://sco.lt/7c2fS5

Thrive is a new online pure play eCommerce provider that uses Costco approach - small catalogue of products with lowest possible price and a yearly membership - to attack the supermarket's center of store products. All these items that sit on shelved in the grocery store. 

 

Not convinced they have a business model until they get very low cost local delivery as I believe UPS delivery of a bag of flour and olive oil may not be viable. However, trucks running weekly delivery routes to customers along a pre-defined schedule may stand a chance of making money - but that requires scale that Thrive does not yet have, even at 100M$ in volume.

 

But keep watching them, you may be surprised...

The story of a very bright kid that unleashes the power of deep learning and machine intelligence to tech his car how to drive. And it seems to be working. Someone to look at very carefully.

 

But also a story about the power that these new tools have on our world and should be leveraged more aggressively by corporations.

 

Look at the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTrgRYa2wbI

I revisited this article from mid-2014, and it absolutely still applies! It's worthwhile to click through if only to interact with this gif.

Describes quite well the digital computing industry cycles and tries to predict what the next one will be.

Healthcare will be revolutionized with machine learning solutions like this one from Google and other from IBM Watson (who's studying to be a medical doctor http://sco.lt/5muqDh)

A friend reminded me of this great book, "Zero marginal cost society", reviewed in this article and another http://sco.lt/6oeWHJ by Franck Diana. This article presents the gist of the idea in the book with some great examples. Makes one think, especially these days of Uber taxi disruption in Montreal...

marketingIO: One Source for All Marketing Technology Challenges. See our solutions

Another twist in the customer journey and its impact on marketing. The article also highlights the need for omni-channel approach and proper technology foundation for emails in particular.

Retailers are fighting back against online pure plays, matching prices more often than not - especially when delivery costs are accounted for. This study compares the prices in a multitude of product categories and shows the price difference is shrinking..


The term omni-channel was introduced a few years back to demonstrate that customers often will move from on-line to in-store during their shopping experience. Retailer are adapting as they provide prices that are the same in both environments.

voice print and finger print to access bank accounts will be safer than passwords we use today. Tests by this BBC reporter (see video) show that voice recognition is very good even in busy or noisy environments. 


This will mark a huge shift in banking, hopefully making it easier and safer at the same time.

New technologies to store data remains as important as ever given we capture more and more of our real world information. the problem of permanent storage keeps being raised as we realize that floppy disks, tapes, CDs and DVDs will not provide long term storage - we are hoping for tens or hundreds of years when they actually may only keep them for a few years. 

McKinsey offers insights for executives to think differently about digital, to change the way they think but not necessarily to revolutionize everything.

Franck Diana, CTO for Tata Consulting firm, reviews a report on the future health ecosystem and provides interesting data about baby boomers and millenials that indicates the rise of wellness and health interest in the coming years. 


I am a strong believer that digital will play a major role in this trend.

Digital flip in education - teaching using videos offline then meeting in class for exercices and group discussion - may not be the only transformation. Having alumni contribute after they graduate rather than before may be the wave of the future, no?

Excellent article and video from NSA chief on hacking network security. Hackers will spend the time to understand a network and its vulnerabilities. Something most companies don't.


And I believe it. Security, to be effective, requires a lot of time and effort, which most companies are not willing to invest - because it is for prevention and thus may appear to be an unnecessary cost if there are no security breaches!


Moreover, applying the security best practices that are presented here mean that access to network is difficult, requires special tools and software, prevents users from bringing their devices to work, etc. So it is actually very annoying for users to have secure networks. Thus, users will find ways to bypass it by using cloud solutions or installing shadow IT solutions.


If you feel technically inclined and want to investigate further, read wikipedia entry on packet injection and head out to airpwn for a simple tool that will make you never trust an open wifi connection (Startbucks free wifi anyone) in the future...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_injection

http://airpwn.sourceforge.net/Airpwn.html


Credits to La Sphere, Radio Canada's very good weekly show on all things web and digital. 


Describes a high school in the US that has deployed 15 beacons on its premise and what they are used for.

Lazy web was a great 12 episode youtube show that described recent developer news. Even though it has stopped it is a great reference, worth listening to today.

This website proposes use cases for beacons, from restaurant push notifications, parking meter interaction and connected devices. Other cookbooks are also presented here: 

http://sco.lt/7VHCsb

Google announced "the physical web" project months ago as an open source project. Checkout the pages with tons of examples and more info about how to build them.


Google also recently has announced it will support it natively in Android Chrome, making discovery of beacons much easier as it won't require any new app to be installed - assuming Chrome is on every device.

http://blog.chromium.org/2016/02/the-physical-web-expands-to-chrome-for_10.html


With the rise of IoT, we can expect more of these in the future. However given the lukewarm reception of QR codes or Apple iBeacons, we can question their real-world adoption rate - even though they are builtin to millions of iPhone and iPad iOS devices the concept has not caught on it seems http://sco.lt/97shYP


Yet there is a true need for physical devices to connect with our mobile devices so I expect new solutions to be proposed, with one catching on at some point in time.

Google - Apple, Yahoo, Facebook, and others - all have security checks and solutions that are free to use. They help protect individual accounts and related data. 


Visit those sites today and then make a note to visit them on a regular basis, say on a monthly or quarterly basis, just to make sure.


Here is a list of security links for common solutions and services for your reference:


Interesting to see that design has become so important in the digital world. I guess this is because digital is creating new worlds and new experiences that require their own new vocabulary and reference models.

A chart that shows the number of companies that offer products and services in the big data space. 

Covers the 10 most common security threats, then proposes a 3 month plan of action and concludes with a list of security expert blogs and twitter feeds to follow. Simple. Effective.


And for your info, here are the top 10 threats. If you don't know what they are, then you are much more at risk than you think...

  1. Phishing
  2. Malvertising
  3. Software vulnerabilities 
  4. SQL injection 
  5. Password attacks
  6. Ransomware
  7. Denial of service attacks (DoS/DDos) 
  8. Drive-by downloads
  9. Man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM)
  10. Scareware 

Watch this video on the Loreal smart mirror that helps you determine the best makeup or hairdo in the morning. Or build a smart mirror as a weekend project running Android or Raspberry Pi machine.


Cool, very cool, can't wait to get my hand on these things in the future.

I remember the 50-in-1 electronic kits that I played with when I was young.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=50+in+1+electronics+kit&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=951&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd-dD2997KAhUEOD4KHc-4D8MQsAQINA


I also remember the breadboards we used in engineering school to learn and build our prototypes. nowadays, kids have many more choices, including this one. 


Jot this one down for christmas gift to a bright techno-geeky kid in your family...!

BMW is building a motorcycle helmet with heads up display. I expect we will see the technology behind google glass appear in many more devices in the next few years. This one is at least two years away,

The video is voluntarily futuristic but helps understand the fundamental change that augmented reality will provide. Wall-size TV, different viewpoints, additional information, etc.


The business applications for this technology are enormous and should not be discounted. Hololens dev toolkit are now available for those that want to experiment.

Known as social engineering, this is a popular hack that is very low tech and can bypass most security technology by exploiting the weakest link in the security chain: humans.


I wrote about this especially for famous hack of the CIA director or recent paypal hack here http://sco.lt/6A7NSb


In this case - whether this particular information about Apple is true or not - it raises the concern of how valuable the digital information can be in certain cases, especially for competitive intelligence and intellectual property protection. 


Companies would be wise to inform their employees of the risk and have them report any suspicious activity or contacts to their leaders or security team.

Accenture new report shows that digital transformation enables something big in the workforce: autonomy.

Amazon must invest everything it has - all its profits - to create the tools, and technologies it needs to be relevant against established retailers.


It underlines how much companies must invest when they go through their digital transformation: they must be ready to impact income in order to define themselves with digital technologies.

Very cool collection of article, papers, news about health and new related technologies and companies.

Looks much like the Capgemini framework http://sco.lt/9Gn3A1 but always good to have different models to choose from.


A great series from Deloitte on the impact of digital on the supply chain.

Here's something to consider more and more: smart furniture. With internet of things, this is a trend that may pick up steam in the coming years. For now, still nice prototyping but no mass production AFAIK.

I've been tracking this years now and it seems to be happening. Stores will transform to become points of service rather than warehouses. All the commodity products found on shelves in the center of the store are best candidates for eCommerce.

I wrote about TensorFlow when Google open sourced it. Great technology but only useful if you have the data to drive it. Now there is an online classe to learn how to use it. The future of product marketing: give the software and the training - because only few have the data to drive it!

Few jobs are safe from automation.

Computing is everywhere and a requirement for digital transformation. Here's the latest.

More evidence that digital security and privacy issues often resort to "Traditional methods" to perform crimes - what is called social engineering. Here is a description of call centers to impersonate people in multiple languages when companies try to verify your identity byphone during a digital transaction.


Krebs also offers a solution which would requires us all to have a voice "fingerprint" available to validate our true identity.

A great review of the most annoying website features that exist on the web today. Do you have those in your website? If you do, it may be time to reconsider...

Great reference on shopping trends in the USA.

A great reference for technology solutions in the practical world.

See the video for body camera designed for police officers.

A detailed explanation of method by which hackers can access paypal user accounts using easily obtainable personal information.


Reminds me of a similar incident where a teenager was able to fool Verizon and AOL employees into giving him access to CIA director email account: http://sco.lt/6qhN5t

With recent announcement that the uberEATS service will be deployed in 10 new cities, I found that the Wired article does present the new service quite well. It also provides some very useful insights on UBER and its future plans for disrupting the world... ;-)



Also read

http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-to-ring-the-dinner-bell-in-10-u-s-cities-1453324399 (paywall)

or for a summary 

http://www.techinsider.io/uber-is-launching-ubereats-in-10-new-cities-2016-1 

If you are in the business of exposing APIs via RESTFul web services, listen to this before you document your API.

Also get the Gartner report on mulesoft research page: http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-2K50B88&ct=150729&st=sb

Amazon introduce a small Internet connected device they called "dash" a few years ago to simplify replenishment of consumables such as laundry detergent via the push of a button. Now they have licensed their technology to manufacturers such as GE to embed the device right into their products. Welcome to the new world of shopping at home!


Have you planned to introduce Internet connected devices and gadgets into your products or offer your products via those devices? Have you made such innovations part of your strategic plan? What are you waiting for?...


Read the following for more insights on how Amazon dash plans to revolutionize the way we consume at home: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=dash

A great reference for 3D printing applications in different markets and industries.

Yahoo may be about to die but its engineering blog remain one of the best. Read it.

McKinsey led the way by introducing us all to customer journey in 2009. Here they highlight how the use of this very simple mapping tool provides instant returns to those organizations that listen.


- McKinsey describes the Customer Decision Journey very eloquently in this 2009 article. http://bit.ly/Z1Ck1r

and other must reads on the same topic http://sco.lt/7Yte2j

CES 2016 has introduce a plethora of wearable gadgets and other devices to track your health, improve your fitness and wellness. This is a list of those products including the Montreal based OMsignal.

One must remain careful when buying privacy protection service as many have yet to prove their usefulness and some, as in this case, are just plain ineffective.

A reference list of tools that use deep learning and AI we use today.

Scientists from Imperial College London have identified two clusters (“gene networks”) of genes that are linked to human intelligence. Called M1 and M3, these gene networks appear to influence cognitive function, which includes memory, attention, processing speed and reasoning.

Importantly, the scientists have discovered that these two networks are likely to be under the control of master regulator switches. The researcher want to identify those switches and see if they can manipulate them, and ultimately find out if this knowledge of gene networks could allow for boosting cognitive function.

“We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now, haven’t known which genes are relevant,” said Michael Johnson, lead author of the study from the Imperial College London Department of Medicine. Johnson says the genes they have found so far are likely to share a common regulation, which means it may be possible to manipulate a whole set of genes linked to human intelligence.

Combining data from brain samples, genomic information, and IQ tests

In the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the international team of researchers looked at samples of human brain from patients who had undergone neurosurgery for epilepsy. The investigators analyzed thousands of genes expressed in the human brain, and then combined these results with genetic information from healthy people who had undergone IQ tests and from people with neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.

Then they conducted various computational analyses and comparisons to identify the gene networks influencing healthy human cognitive abilities. Remarkably, they found that some of the same genes that influence human intelligence in healthy people cause impaired cognitive ability and epilepsy when mutated. And they found that genes that make new memories or sensible decisions when faced with lots of complex information also overlap with those that cause severe childhood onset epilepsy or intellectual disability.

Brain research and work to understand the architecture of our brain and reverse engineer it into machines continues to bring wonderful insights into who we are and what will soon be possible with digital machines.

weekend reading...

In this post, I outline what I think are the 16 topics to think about
within the current generation, and then link to the things I’ve written
about them. In January, I’ll dig into some of the themes for the future -
VR, AR, drones and AI, but this is where we are today. 

1: Mobile is the new central ecosystem of tech
2: Mobile is the internet
3: Mobile isn’t about small screens and PCs aren’t about keyboards - mobile means an ecosystem and that ecosystem will swallow ‘PCs’
4: The future of productivity
5: Microsoft's capitulation
6: Apple & Google both won, but it’s complicated
7: Search and discovery
8: Apps and the web
9: Post Netscape, post PageRank, looking for the next run-time
10: Messaging as a platform, and a way to get customers. 
11: The unclear future of Android and the OEM world
12: Internet of Things
13: Cars
14: TV and the living room
15: Watches
16: Finally, we are not our users

No surprise but great list of reference reading for the new year.

Great news for Montreal and Canada as Amazon announced plans to open a new data center in Montreal.


Montreal is recognized for its cheap and very green hydro electric power. Montreal also has amazing fiber network connectivity with other North American and European regions. Also, Canada may provide better data protection and privacy laws than the US - although this may be debatable.


This is great news for Montreal and for Canadian businesses looking to move to the cloud!

As the year gets started, here's a guide to help you create a social media sharing calendar.

As happens from time to time, somebody has spotted a feature in Windows 10 that isn't actually newand has largely denounced it as a great privacy violation.

The Intercept has written that if you have bought a Windows PC recently then Microsoft probably has your encryption key. This is a reference to Windows' device encryption feature. We wrote about this feature when it was new, back when Microsoft introduced it in Windows 8.1 in 2013 (and before that, in Windows RT).

Microsoft windows 10 stores disk encryption keys in its cloud oneDrive for backup purposes. This article explains why this may represent a privacy concern and what you can do to retrieve the key and store it somewhere else.


In the context of the needs to encrypt data to protect our information this is an essential knowledge for Windows 10 owners. 

Canadian Tire COO says out loud what most Canadian retailers are thinking: you need faith to get into eCommerce today because the delivery costs cannot yet be offset by cost reductions for brick and mortar retailers.

Very informative insights by Google Idea and great questions raised by Luigi.

Pictures have started to emerge but what I find most interesting when reading the patent application is that Google proposes to use magnetic material to change the shape of the device using a new kind of material to better fit the user head shape. Very interesting and promising.


Also read the FCC patent application: http://pimg-fpiw.uspto.gov/fdd/67/950/091/0.pdf

Very impressive coming from a political figure.

Great list of tracking apps and solutions to your personal wellness and fitness in this new year!

That's why Toyota invented the "kanban" system, and introduced it to their factory teams more than 60 years ago: to help make sure each part was made with the same level of care at every step. For that, kanban focuses on status instead of due dates. Each task moves through standardized project stages so teams can track what's in-progress at a glance, and identify show-stopping bottlenecks.

It helped Toyota make parts that were consistently great, and ensured the parts were finished exactly when they were most needed in their factories. And today, kanban helps teams manage editorial workflows, push code through development sprints, streamline hiring processes, and much more.

It's the project management system you need to visualize your work. Here are 8 of the best ways you can implement kanban into your team, along with 8 great apps to pick from.

A great review of the Kanban system and the tools that you can use to manage projects using kanban. I use trello all the time and it is great.

Rooms and rooms of cables, switches, and freezing cold air. It’s difficult to define “the cloud.” Even more difficult, perhaps, is photographing it. But that’s precisely what Peter Garritano set out to do with his photo essay The Internet. Taken over the course of the past year, Garritano visited five of New York City’s most interconnected spaces, colloquially called “carrier hotels.” Inside these buildings, like 60 Hudson and 111 8th Avenue, hundreds of fiber-optic cables, fans, servers, and machinery connect to form the Internet.

Actually 15 pictures of a typical colocation data center in downtown manhattan.

While surfing for trends in Supply Chain, I came across this article  by an expert and I decided to shed some light on it and share my thoughts on it. I agree with some of author's view and disagree with some. But I hope this stimulates you to think and generates a healthy discussion in the future.

from Microsoft, a webinar on experience to move to devops.

Reference on all things AI and singularity is near

eCommerce market and trends study by AT Kearney in 2015. The report highlights eCommerce penetration worldwide but also indicates the high variability of eCommerce penetration by industry sectors. Electronics, books and apparels top the list while grocery is a the bottom. No surprise here.

A review of top companies to hire to help you implement your digital transformation. Also read the Forrester blog post about it: http://blogs.forrester.com/sarah_sikowitz/15-11-05-introducing_the_forrester_wave_digital_experience_service_providers

a review of 9 companies that have sponsored fitbit devices for their employees. The result is a more active, productive and healthy workforce.

Short on details, I still find the Gartner website full of useful insights and things to ponder.

We present a method to continuously blend between multiple facial performances of an actor, which can contain different facial expressions or emotional states. As an example, given sad and angry video takes of a scene, our method empowers a movie director to specify arbitrary weighted combinations and smooth transitions between the two takes in post-production. Our contributions include (1) a robust nonlinear audio-visual synchronization technique that exploits complementary properties of audio and visual cues to automatically determine robust, dense spatio-temporal correspondences between takes, and (2) a seamless facial blending approach that provides the director full control to interpolate timing, facial expression, and local appearance, in order to generate novel performances after filming. In contrast to most previous works, our approach operates entirely in image space, avoiding the need of 3D facial reconstruction. We demonstrate that our method can synthesize visually believable performances with applications in emotion transition, performance correction, and timing control.

Not my field of work but a great example of the power of digital technology in image processing. Here, seamless combination of two video streams: look at the video it is truly impressive and you don't need technical expertise to appreciate the work they've done.


And you have to question every movie you see from this point forward!

Another field where there is huge activity with the introduction of cheap, powerful wearable devices with sensors and Big Data analytics capability. Here again, expect huge growth in the next few years.

CIO Surveys are interesting for the trend they highlight. Here it shows the 3 types of CIOs out there: operators are the more traditional ones, instigators are the ones that drive digital transformation, and co-creators are there to support the business (that ultimately drive the transformation).


Which one are you?

Interested in internet of things: here's a review of 100 companies laying this field. My prediction: 700 by year end 2016 and 3000 by year end 2017. This field is going to explode.

Recent forrester wave reviews the digital platforms available. Many options available but no leader means there is room for consolidation and growth in the future. 


If you have to pick a solution, do it with your current needs in mind first, as you may need to change in the 3 to 5 years to come when a true leader emerges from the pack.

Winter is coming for car manufacturers. An Autonomous Winter, without end. If you’ve seen what Tesla is doing with Autopilot, and all they plan to do with it, you’ve already seen the future. Now it’s up to automakers to figure out what they want to be in this new world as quickly as possible.

Very good article on the transformation coming to the automobile industry due to driverless cars. I found the topic interesting because of the driverless technologies involved and the opportunity for transformation in companies both large and small. But in fact there seems to be something more profound about to happen: 2 new business models are emerging.


The author splits the world of car makers between those that will be in the mobility space and those that will be in the driving space. All car manufacturers were both until now.


But more important the author notes that autonomous cars will mean fewer cars on the road and way less cars sold: up to 70% less cars sold in fact. This will be a huge earthquake in the auto industry, basically meaning that the market will be cut down by two thirds. Wow.


I assume car owners will also have to make the choice between acquiring a car for mobility or driving purpose. Very interesting questions.

A paper on Australian initiatives to provide farmers and other agriculture workers with telecommunications and other digital tools to support their transformation.

A very detailed post about potential identity theft and how to prevent it. Must read for any american. Not sure what to do in Canada or in Quebec though?

Quantum computing remains a very elusive topic as researchers have a hard time proving that their machines are actually leveraging quantum mechanics to solve problems. But if they do there are great opportunities ahead.

A team of scientists has developed an algorithm that captures human learning abilities, enabling computers to recognize and draw simple visual concepts that are mostly indistinguishable from those created by humans.

The work by researchers at MIT, New York University, and the University of Toronto, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, marks a significant advance in the field — one that dramatically shortens the time it takes computers to “learn” new concepts and broadens their application to more creative tasks, according to the researchers.

“Our results show that by reverse-engineering how people think about a problem, we can develop better algorithms,” explains Brenden Lake, a Moore-Sloan Data Science Fellow at New York University and the paper’s lead author. “Moreover, this work points to promising methods to narrow the gap for other machine-learning tasks.”

The paper’s other authors are Ruslan Salakhutdinov, an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, and Joshua Tenenbaum, a professor at MIT in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines.

When humans are exposed to a new concept — such as new piece of kitchen equipment, a new dance move, or a new letter in an unfamiliar alphabet — they often need only a few examples to understand its make-up and recognize new instances. But machines typically need to be given hundreds or thousands of examples to perform with similar accuracy.

“It has been very difficult to build machines that require as little data as humans when learning a new concept,” observes Salakhutdinov. “Replicating these abilities is an exciting area of research connecting machine learning, statistics, computer vision, and cognitive science.”

Salakhutdinov helped to launch recent interest in learning with “deep neural networks,” in a paper published in Science almost 10 years ago with his doctoral advisor Geoffrey Hinton. Their algorithm learned the structure of 10 handwritten character concepts — the digits 0-9 — from 6,000 examples each, or a total of 60,000 training examples.

Review of work done to make computers learn like humans, the experiment shows that new algorithms can learn from very large sets of images - 60 000 examples to learn how to draw digits 0 to 9. 

Singularity University has organized a conference on the topic of human health, medicine and the impact that exponential improvements may mean on that industry. Full of references to conference presentations and followup posts.

What a great idea: 12 stories to fill your holiday digital reading list. Enjoy!

Despite spending 1.5B$ this year, Walmart sells only 13.2B$ online compared to Amazon 71.8B$. What is more troubling is that eCommerce growth is slowing down.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

After years of denial, large retailers may not be able to transform fast enough to catch up with Amazon. The solution: create the disruption yourself to, at least, learn from your mistakes and be ready to fight when the time comes. 


So many stories, from the music industry to yellow pages, have demonstrated that when disruption happens, the industry changes so fast - what I call the digital cliff - that you won't have time to react. Looks like this is happening to Walmart even though they started in 2010 to create a "lab" and move lots of personnel and resources to the new team.


See also: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=labs

This report presents many cas studies of corporations that use instagram for business purpose. Very useful for those that have yet to make the leap or that have not yet found their instagram sweet spot.

Full of data about Internet penetration and usage in Canada. Of particular interest in the usage of netflix, above or near 20% everywhere but in QC...

Snowden leaks revealed the many different ways NSA surveillance was using. As part of the investigations that followed the leaked, the National Security Letter (NSL) was uncovered and was very well presented in the documentary "United States of Secrets" (PBS Frontline, see http://sco.lt/6kuPfV), which I highly recommend if you want more details about what it is and how far reaching it can be.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies must be aware that this exists when going with cloud services and when they use digital communications in general. With proper encryption of data at rest and in transit, they should feel more secure that their data remains private, NSL letters or not.


That being said, NSL covers mostly metadata which is not encrypted and which can reveal much about a person or group. At this point in time, I am not aware of a good method to protect against that.

A review of top 10 retailers in sales per square foot. Apple tops the list.

I have heard of denial of service attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, or SQL injections, I had never heard of attacks that were specific to digital currencies such as bitcoins. Well, here we are.


See OWASP for a list of attacks you should be aware of in this day and age.

https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:Attack

A review of 19 security hacks on physical devices Compromise Cars, Pacemakers, Mobile Phones, and ATMs.


WHY THIS  IS IMPORTANT

As more devices become digital, more hacks become possible. Get used to it!

marketingIO: One Source for All Marketing Technology Challenges. See our solutions

A very simple template to help you create mission, vision, strategy, objectives and tactics - and stay away from most common mistakes

Great blog post. A bit disappointed that it is limited to marketing tactics that seem to benefit only the retailer. Why not suggest receipt content that would help the user? 


Things like emailing content derived from the products sold (a recipe if you bought food products), links to other "partner" or affiliated websites, reminders for next replenishment when buying staples and other consumables, etc.etc.


Malgré le fait qu'aujourd'hui tout se vend sur Internet, les entreprises québécoises tardent à adopter le commerce électronique et celles qui le font sont encore trop peu nombreuses pour desservir les marchés hors Québec. Le CEFRIO en collaboration avec l'Institut du Québec ont voulu avec ce projet d'enquête sensibiliser les entreprises d'ici à cet enjeu désormais incontournable qu'est le commerce électronique.

La première partie de ce rapport présente les résultats d'une enquête réalisée auprès de 1 200 entreprises du Québec (secteurs de la fabrication, du commerce de gros, du commerce de détail et des services). On y dresse le portrait du commerce électronique au Québec et on y propose des pistes d'action pour aider le Québec à évoluer dans ce domaine. La deuxième partie présente cinq études de cas d'entreprises québécoises qui intègrent le commerce électronique dans leurs pratiques d'affaires.

  1. Altitude-sports
  2. BonLook
  3. DeSerres
  4. La Vie en Rose
  5. Lozeau

(in french) 5 case studies of Quebec companies with a successful eCommerce solution. Part of the recent CEFRIO eCommerce study update.

I've been seeing this for the past year or so: IBM now presents itself as a design company. The sales pitch for digital transformation projects often looks and sounds like one you'd get from a marketing agency. Needless to say, customers are sceptical (me first!).


And the design-centric approach feels skin deep at this time, and has yet to permeate the core. Many IBM'ers I cross paths day-in-day-out still think and behave like in the good old days.


I met Phil Gilbert about 10 years ago when he was pushing a startup business (that later got acquired by IBM) and I must say he left me with a very good impression. Let's hope he can carry his transformation passion to the rest of the organization.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Traditional companies - think grocery retailers for example - often have a hard time with digital transformation because it feels so far away from their day to day reality. Yet even "techno friendly" organizations like IBM - or Dell, or Cisco, or any Telco - have a very hard time with digital transformation. I guess it is because the change is not technology-centric but rather human-centric. And humans don't like change.

A review of the many changes Apple has been making in its stores. Reminder: Apple stores have the most sales per square feet of any store. Retailers of all should take note and apply Apple's lessons to their own stores: store are not warehouses but showrooms that display products and offer information, accessories and service. Order online for everything else.


(in french)

A recent article in LaPresse+ has raised an important question: is LinkedIn being used like Tinder to digitally "cruise". It brought me back to this paper last year that described very graphically how social networks and dating sites are used to find mates.


http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/1a2070bf-9712-4dc2-acd7-6f0b3f49b3f0%7C_0.html


In a world where more and more of our lives are transferred in the virtual space, it is interesting to see how even "professional" networks like LinkedIn are being used for other purposes. I had also noticed recently a very high proportion of "invites" that come from people that have little interest in a professional relationship. If that trend continues, it may mark the end of LinkedIn. I assume they will take corrective actions to ensure it remains the professional network we all have come to rely on.

Not sure this is the way to go: if I want to email someone then I 'll do that directly, not through USPS! 


Joking aside, the article points to the very interesting fact that every envelope is scanned and thus could trigger an email to inform you that a letter is coming.


I still don't see the point or a use case where that can be essential.

Unobtrusive and relatively low cost, a beacon (or iBeacon when using Apple nomenclature) is a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) device which contains its own battery unit which means they can be positioned pretty much anywhere. Although there are a variety of different beacons available, the most common flavour is when used in conjunction with a bluetooth enabled smartphone where the beacon’s signal triggers content for the smartphone when it comes into range.

Understandably it is the retail sector that has been pressing ahead with the technology, the ability to reach and inform consumers at the most opportune moment clearly a powerful marketing tool. However, to dismiss beacon technology as simply a new way to target customer would be to miss the point.

As this white paper sets out beacons can and will be used in a multitude of industries to aid transformation in digital services.

In this White Paper we explore:

  • What is a beacon?
  • How to they work?
  • General uses
  • Industry specific uses, including retail, academia, transport and events

I would have expected to see more iBeacons deployed in the field by now, given the hype they generated when first appeared in 2013. Is it because they don't work well or because there is not use case for them. 


This white paper provides answers to the latter part of the equation, as it explores uses of iBeacons in various industries. 

Employment is a great metric to measure the digital transformation. Looks like to trend is clear when you look where new jobs are being created: service industry in inherently a digital one!

Video now accounts for more than half of Internet traffic. This is inline with other bandwidth information I have seen.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Internet used to be about browsing websites and chatting with friends on Facebook. Today it is all about viewing video which means telcos should really be scarred about cord cutters - people moving away from cable or satellite TV. In the future, I assume the proportion of bandwidth will continue to increase.


With billions of internet-connected devices showing up in the next 10 years, will IoT become the bandwidth hog then?

As with most new digital technologies, the biggest challenge is adoption and human nature to push back and stick with old ways. This is why change management is so important. Unfortunately, seldom done properly.

The season for end of year recaps and next year predictions is around the corner. I am amazed at the amount of digital technology transformation in this year's Fortune crystal ball: buzzfeed to buy Time, apple to buy tesla, end of food delivery bubble (meaning it will become mainstream soon after?), cybersecurity, and many others...

eMarketer announces the launch of Numbers, a customizable charting tool that allows users to tell compelling data stories quickly and easily.  The new tool, which launches today, allows eMarketer customers to select from thousands of metrics to create charts and tables tailored for their specific needs.  As with all eMarketer products, the Numbers tool incorporates only the most trusted, vetted, and methodically-researched eMarketer data.

Numbers charts can be custom-built using eMarketer’s vast database of research, which examines media trends, consumer behavior, and device usage in 41 countries.  The Numbers tool also allows users to filter metrics by demographics, including age, generation, gender, and race.

With just a few clicks, users can select the metrics they want to visualize, and build a custom chart that tells their unique story with data.  The information can then be used to track relevant trends by comparing benchmarks and metrics side by side.  Once built, charts can be converted into PNG files or Excel spreadsheets with a simple click, enabling them to be downloaded and shared.


marketingIO: One Source for All Marketing Technology Challenges. See our solutions.

Some good numbers and insight. I expect this trial will not remain a free resource for long.

More reading on transhumanism.

marketingIO: One Source for All Marketing Technology Challenges. See our solutions.

Crossing the Chasm (Amazon) is a classic book from the 1990s (wikipedia) that introduced the concept of a product lifecycle to the masses. It helped explain to many startups why their products were hits early on but failed miserably as they never gained a large audience. Must read book.


Chiefmartec uses the lifecycle to explain the current market of marketing technology products.

A very good review of the digital challenges that the CPG industry faces today.

Banks already have noticed but now they must make digital transformation a reality otherwise they'll get disrupted by newcomers in the payment area.

This security expert performs an investigation into the VTECH security breach that revealed 4.8M user accounts and children photos and chat logs.

The price is the big news here because it shows just how cheap computing power has become. 


This is just an announcement summary. More details here: http://bit.ly/1QLypP8


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

There will be a computer in everything very soon. Chairs, tables, food packages, name it, there will be a computer in there. Because it costs nothing - or close to it. This is what we call Internet of Things, and why everyone is saying it will be HUGE. Believe it.

Very important insight here: data is more important than code. Provides an interesting look into the reason why open source is a good thing and will happen more in the future.


Corrolary to that, good luck having access to Google or Apple or Facebook data any time soon.


One should put this up against Marc Andreesen blog post that software will rule the world: http://sco.lt/8PmkrJ


Now I would say that software+data rules the world.

Very proud to now have 50,000 over followers on my blog. Thank you!

A number of video presentations that introduce what transhumanism is about. Great to listen to and ponder over the weekend...

I wrote about this company's experiment to make everything public.

http://sco.lt/6Ixvt3

From employee equity, fundraising, revenue and now a new salary calculation method that applies to everyone, CEO onward. Very interesting insight and a good reference for anyone starting a new company...

2 factor authentication (2FA) is an essential tool to keep your personal information secure. 2FA sends an SMS when you login to a website from a new computer - or again every 30 days or so - to validate that you are indeed who you say you are - not some hacker in Russia.

 

This service provides a very complete list of websites that support multi-factor authentication - and highlights those that do not. Looking at the list, it is for example very surprising to see so few banks supporting 2FA but that LinkedIn protects your resume more diligently!

 

Moreover because it is open source, new sites are addedd consantly, so the list should remain fresh.

 

Great tool to use as a checklist to ensure you have turned on at least SMS verification in your key accounts.

Very depressing review of the online drug marketplaces. Amazing to see how the retail model is being replicated for illicit purpose.

Down to earth checklist for digital transformation that includes such things as allocating time to explore new solutions for business problems when your staff is focussed on their run-the-business activities.


Also I recommend the blog behind the article: http://blogs.starcio.com/

A good reminder of the different ways that Google gathers data about us via its many online solutions, including search and advertising but increasingly via other methods too: Android, Email, etc.

I wrote about this in the past with different reviews of the nespresso business model http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=nespresso


I've never highlighted the strategyzer business model generator and the value proposition design solutions and tools and that is a shame. I believe it to be an essential knowledge for digital transformation.


Very often we must think outside the box and contemplate changing our fundamental business model when looking in the depth of a digital transformation - think how these new companies have revolutionized their industry model : Uber, airbnb, amazon, spotify, or nespresso.


Strategyzer is the company behind 2 approaches that you must absolutely master. Go through the site and first buy the books to get started. Or listen to this video presentation that describes how to present the business model canvas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SliMK6Z2jlA

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a03a2a576ad72cd8546455984/files/Ways_To_Present_The_BMC_Strategyzer_Webinar4.pdf


Then watch all the other video webinars. Have a great Sunday morning!

https://www.youtube.com/user/businessmodeltv

So true: you don't need technical or digital skills or expertise on your board. But your board needs those critical 3 capabilities to mange the transformation ahead: outer vison, exponential thinking (wrote about this recently, especially singularity is near http://sco.lt/8uRqUr) and intuition for enterprise architecture.


Early this year the staff at Epicenter, a Stockholm based high-tech company, were given a choice; they could either be issued a standard employee ID card for access to the building and office equipment, or they could be injected with a tiny radio frequency identification device, placed just under the skin of their hand – otherwise known as a subcutaneous implant. Surprisingly, a number chose the chip, on the promise that with a wave of their hand they would be able to access the building, open doors, operate photocopiers and even pay for lunch in the company cafeteria. No ID cards to forget at home or passwords to remember.

In fact, the Epicenter case is hardly the first experiment of its kind. Going back as far as 2004, Barcelona nightclub owner Conrad Chase offered RFID chipping to his VIP clients enabling access to special lounges and payment capability.

I knew they did this for dogs but never thought they did it for humans. But come to think of it, makes perfect sense. Or it will become the biggest invasion of privacy ever.


Great insight from André!

I can't say I agree with the message but the idea sounds like great communication and marketing.


Democrats should replicate with "VoteHilary". They could even use it as their SSID as I believe SSID is way more powerful because it is streamed to everyone and so you get "VoteHilary" display when you list the wifi in the area.


In fact, why would companies not use this marketing trick in their public wifi setup? After all SSIDs are broadcast to everyone, which is the equivalent of a large wifi banner ad. Starbucks could have an SSID "BuyXmasEspresso", Metro could have "OurProduceAreBest", etc. etc. 

A presentation of case studies in data analysis for Marketing, it also presents some very useful enterprise data science insights that can be leveraged when preparing a corporate data strategy. Also presents some interesting data points and use case priorization.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

All corporations dream of leveraging data in real-time but the reality of legacy computer systems, lack of expertise with new tools and technologies, and a considerable amount of hype very often makes data strategies overblown and unrealistic. At this point in time it appears that the best course of action is to capture a target vision and identify numerous small initiatives to get your feet wet and run up the maturity scale. Stay away from large all-encompassing plans that require boiling the ocean (of data)!

A good starter post on IoT.

Singularity university explores the impact the the exponential growth will have on all aspects of our future lives. This sites provides an amazing starting point to get the latest news in the field and to become more familiar with the university work.

The structured way to approach digital transformation!

An interesting look at what happens when people think shadow IT is good and they can manage to work without addressing the real issues of legacy systems and data integration.

11 years ago the DARPA challenge for an autonomous car to drive across 150 miles in the desert resulted in no car being able to cross the finish line. Today, cars can drive 99% of the way across North America in autonomous mode, and Google self-driving cars has many million miles of driving experience behind its autonomous wheel. Where will we be 10 years from now (hey, I'll only be 60 then!)?


As Elon Musk recently said, in 20 years owning a car will be like owning a horse - http://bit.ly/1SCn0PF.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As I wrote about previously (http://bit.ly/1SCna9O), self-driving cars and other autonomous driving will be a revolution for commercial deliveries (autonomous semi-trailer truck now testing in Nevada http://bit.ly/1SCocm2) and other mundane tasks like commuting to work. The economies this may bring to forward thinking companies are enormous.

If you are familiar with the singularity university (http://singularityu.org/), then this website and accompanying book are just great.


If you are not then I encourage you to read the book The Singularity Is Near (http://sco.lt/8uRqUr) to understand the principles of exponential growth (http://sco.lt/5YVBnV) that explains the speed at which new technologies get introduced and adopted.


A must read for any digital transformation aficionado.

Industrial production has been slower to embrace digital transformation. This appears to be about to change with the arrival of internet connected sensors - the internet of things. Couple that with 3D printers, virtual reality, and robots, it will create new opportunities for cost reductions and operational improvements when the data captured by all these IoT will be analyzed in real-time by intelligent algorithms using Big Data analysis and machine learning tools and solutions.


Many expect an industrial revolution to come out of these new technologies.

All industries are impacted by digital transformation. Case in point: new ships from Hyundai will come with sensors and communication but also with on-shore digital services to help them be more efficient. With the advent of self-driving cars we can also of course expect self-driving ships.

A review of 5 trends in egrocery shopping which could also apply to any retailer.

An essential book (kindle book http://amzn.to/1SC8rvp) from Ray Kurzweil that presents data supporting the theory that technological evolution follows an exponential curve. The chart is a famous illustration of this exponential technology growth.


It explains quite well how the personal computer has been able to become part of our lives in such a rapid manner. With evidence and data form many technologies - from the microprocessor to DNA evolution - Kurzweil predicts a future where technology will help humans transcend the limitations that nature has imposed on us. 


Kurzweil is an optimist and shares with us a very positive outlook on the future. Not only is it an eye opening book, it has become the basis for a slew of new studies and gathering, including the singularity university.

A kickstarter campaign for a watch made up of modular components that are interchangeable, promising to let your watch evolve with the times.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Apple sold 230M iPhones last year (http://bit.ly/1MDG5vH) each with a planned obsolescence of 5 years. This level of consumerism cannot be sustained and I assume we will see more and of these modular solutions, with parts that can be replaced by more recent ones, or repaired when they break, thus preventing the need to throw out the whole thing when one little thing becomes obsolete...

Gyms are changing with the introduction of technology that let's gymgoers - here bikers using the Flywheel solutions - see how they do and compare themselves to others.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Looks like we have just started to scratch the surface of what technology can do for humans and their wellness. To date, most digital technologies have been applied to office work - thinks MS office - or personal communications - think Facebook. More recent technologies that include sensors - think Apple watch - connected to the Internet are changing the game.


Not only do these new techs provide you with bio-feedback - instant heart rate, number of steps, watts, etc. - they also mash it up with the data from thousands of others. And the Internet has shown the power and the transformation that can come when you interconnect seamlessly millions and billions of people.

Part of a brainstorming exercise by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Australia. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Not having to carry papers and documents with you is always a good idea. We do it for our personal information and contacts, our emails, calendars, documents and pictures, and soon with our money (apple pay, google wallet, etc.). Moving to the cloud for your government identification makes perfect sense as well. 


Security will need to be bullet proof, but given the number of stolen or lost passports (due mostly to human error I am sure), I would bet that technology would do a much better job.


Concerning privacy and global surveillance, that's a different story...

Four short links is a daily newsletter that proposes four destinations - websites but sometimes PDF documents or other - of particular interest to those in the technology and digital fields.


I am rarely disappointed with their findings. It is worth a place in your inbox.

For my friends in the data science and business intelligence fields, here's great insight into what it will cost you to hire data experts in your organization. Expect to pay premium and to have a hard time finding talent as the data science skills are few and far between.

Customers expect a personalized, seamless brand experience across digital and physical commerce touch points and unified commerce is key to delivering this experience. This is the new mantra in retail, according to the 2015 E-Commerce Survey, 43% of the respondents indicated that a consistent brand experience across channels is one of their top commerce priorities.

“Retailers realize that that they can no longer operate from within silos, and the convergence of digital and physical commerce is now a retail imperative,” said Brian Brunk, principal, Boston Retail Partners.

Boston Retail Partners’ 2015 E-Commerce Survey of top North American retailers offers insights into retailers’ current e-commerce initiatives, priorities, and future trends as the retail industry continues its transformation into the digital world.

Key findings in the 2015 E-Commerce Benchmark Survey include:

> Improving the customer experience is the top priority – 43% of retailers indicating that a consistent brand experience across channels is essential

> A unified commerce platform is critical – 78% of retailers will have a unified commerce platform implemented within 5 years

> Mobilizing commerce remains a high priority – 45% of retailers indicated that mobile websites are their most important e-commerce capability

> Payment options and security are essential – 63% of retailers plan to accept Apple Pay within 2 years

> E-commerce continues to expand – 85% of retailers expect an increase in 2016 e-commerce website revenue

A recent survey on the eCommerce intentions of retailers in the short to mid term.

Amazing research and data from PWC on the cyber crime future forecast. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As everything becomes digital, companies must prepare for the cyber crime threat to go beyond an annoyance and into a top10 risk.

Not sure this thing will work but let's give them an A for effort.

I love papers like this one that look to the past to remind us that what we are living in now may not be so new after all and that, maybe, history repeats itself.


Makes me think of the "zero marginal cost" book that was reviewed here: http://sco.lt/6oeWHJ

Or the "IT doesn't matter" HBR paper which draws parallels between the electricity revolution and the digital revolution (see yesterday's post)

Seminal paper that first claimed that Information Technology had become a commodity (circa 2003) and thus is not a differentiator.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT 


What I find most useful in there is the parallel the author draws with the introduction of electricity in the late 1800s and how it revolutionized the world by allowing industries to move away from river banks and into cities. 


I believe the same is true with digital transformation: those that "get it" use digital to rethink their processes and industries. They do not merely digitize existing processes.

Watch out, the report is behind a paywall but I thought the topic and the chart were worth distributing.

This article describes a research experiment where radio waves were used to control a phone - from a distance of up to 16 feet - to make phone calls, visit websites or other activities that may profit a thief.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As we carry cell phones everywhere with us, we extend the digital threat that we are exposed to. Having someone access our phone from 16 feet may not appear to be much of a threat, it may in fact be very useful in crowded environments as the article states.


Moreover we've seen from the Snowden leaks that NSA has been creating remote hacking solutions to read keyboard keystrokes from a distance - or remote control the camera or microphone. As we carry digital devices with us - now it is phones and watches, but soon implants will come - this further opens threats to our digital selves. Let's be careful!


Also read stuff I wrote about this in the past: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=nsa

Explains how a teenager was able to fool VErizon and AOL employees into giving him access to CIA director email account.


This shows that the weak link in all of our technology remains the people. The solution thus is not more technology or information security restrictions (because everyone will bypass them anyways), but rather better education and technology that is transparent so that people don't bypass it or make insecure by their actions.

Amazon may replace UPS and FedEx with its own delivery service.


I wrote about this in the past when I assumed that Amazon is developing grocery delivery as a volume business to put trucks on the road and cut distributions costs drastically. In that light Amazon is not looking at grocery as a profit center - all it needs is an operation that breaks even because when it does, all other deliveries will basically be free of charge.


And this would mean Amazon will never open stores.

A useful reminder on how companies manipulate their Google search result rankings (SEO) and use marketing lead generation techniques to fool customers.


Last paragraph says it all: "Before you hire someone to do work for you, don’t just pick the company that comes up high in the search results on Google; unfortunately, that generally guarantees nothing other than the company is good at marketing. Take the time to really research the companies you wish to hire before booking them for jobs."


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We have come to rely on web social elements such as comments, ratings and user recommendations to choose products and services. They can be manipulated.

A great reference for anyone looking for tools to analyze, chart and visualize data, from the very simple to the highly complex.

A passionate blog post on the benefits of choosing technology that is not always on the bleeding edge.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Along with a recent post on "technology as if people mattered" - http://sco.lt/5BTsWn - there are more and more people raising their voice to demand that we use technology with more of a business focus first. This is called 2-speed IT or business led IT and often means older or less sexy tech will often do better for the organization globally than the best most advanced technology.


Also read:

How CMOs and CIOs can work together to win the digital customer- http://sco.lt/4x6bp3
Organizing for digital acceleration: Making a two-speed IT operating model work- http://sco.lt/5zuPXV
Multi-speed IT for a digital business- http://sco.lt/5ZIOZN

A review of 50 news websites and comparison of the relative and absolute weight of ads versus content on those sites.

Some interesting nuggets in this article:

- pareto applies:  97% of eCommerce sales (295B$ of 304B$) come from 500 retailers only

- shipping is marketing: Amazon recognized that free 2-day shipping for Prime customers makes for a fabulous customer acquisition tool, therefore it considers shipping a marketing cost.


Plus you'll read about all the different shipping services available today.

Ultimately this chip advantage is one of the little spoken, but critical elements in Apple’s vertically integrated approach. Android OEMs can copy the fingerprint sensor or the 3D Touch mechanism. They just go to the supplier that Apple buys it from. But they can’t copy the underlying software powering these ‘commodity’ chips.

A very interesting post that explains why Apple vertically integrated approach to its solution design gives it not only financial rewards but strategic competitive advantage. In particular, the post looks into the hardware Apple designs to show that it creates an almost insurmontable barrier for others who'd like to compete. And a unique platform onto which to build new solutions such as cars.

In french.

A great article about the many digital issues that are raised when you die.

A recurring theme in the 2 speed IT world, is the battle between marketing and IT to control digital in the organization. This paper frames the discussion and provides some interesting insights, especially the new metrics that should drive executives in the digital world.

From the 2015 Velocity Conference in New York: Technology only matters insofar as it helps people to be more effective.

As technologists, we seem to be focusing so much on the power of the technology and the abilities that these tools have imparted on us, that we seem to have forgotten why we’re here.
- Listening and valuing non-technical people – swinging the pendulum back
- Why it’s your job as a technologist to learn the business and the problems
- Why your technical solutions should start with existing business processes
- Appropriate technology – the power of simple tools and simple technology to solve problems simply
- Evolutionary technology – how and why to build levels of complexity, and why and when to evolve to the next level of complexity

We have so much power to change the world for the better, but we cannot do it with tech alone. Let’s focus on building technical solutions born of balanced context.

Amazing 10 min video (7min at 1.5x!), should be required listen to all IT and technology folks I work it - and repeated monthly so we don't forget.


In a nutshell it presents the argument that you should always use as little technology to solve a problem, even if the technology is sub-optimal. Listen, and I hope you'll agree.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With 2-speed IT, the need for business agility often comes from getting just the right technology to do their job. IT often wants to put in the best technology possible.

More insight on 2 speed IT from McKinsey - how IT organizations must change. And it is a profound change.


I wrote about this earlier this month: http://sco.lt/5ZIOZN

Accenture makes the case for disintermediation in the retail space where manufacturers - CPGs in the diagram - will find in digital technologies the tools to bypass retailers and sell direct to consumers.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This was raised early in the Internet days but never really materialized as consumers find value in retailers - proximity, multi-vendor comparison, etc. Moreover, retailers put up a fight whenever manufacturers try to bypass them, thus making the move to a direct-to-consumer switch unlikely.


However it is true that digital technology provides new opportunities for business models that bypass retailers to bring value to consumers.

A description of possible applications of smart sensors. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is a great example of the difference between data and information.


As we drown into raw data from sensors of all kind, we will see more and more smart devices that analyze the data and report only the useful information.

Boarding pass barcodes contain a lot of private and personally identifiable information. Krebs provides an account of what that information allows you to find on the boarding pass holder. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Very private information is often stored in plain sites on things that we do not even think about trowing in the garbage. Let's be careful!

A guide from Google that provides insights into how users and retailers are tapping into mobile to increase sales.

A visual representation of most common passwords

Doing exactly this at Bombardier right now: creating an agile team within the IT organization that complements the traditional team on business critical new technologies including: digital marketing, analytics and data management, collaboration, mobile, and cloud solutions.


Results are pretty amazing: more agility, improved business satisfaction and often lower costs to deliver.


It works.

Essential marketing data that you can easily reuse in presentations and strategic plans.


The 2014 charts can be found here: http://sco.lt/8OqbxJ 


Those interested in charts like this will flip for Mary Meeker State of the Internet. Here is

2015: http://sco.lt/7NdrRB 

2014: http://sco.lt/6OE7UX

A very personal story on the use of trackers and quantified self to loose weigth.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

More than ever, quantified self and wearables will provide very personal information to help guide us towards wellness - and allow people to share them with the world. Not everyone is ready and willing to do so.

A man tracks his every sneezes - and many other health data. He is a legend amongst quantified self community.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As more people track their health and wear sensors, the kind of health benefits that Christiansen has had will be available for all.

Just a great list to get started in the topic is of interest to you.

How to manage your e-reputation and some methods to disappear from the web. In french.

Just a great list to get started in the topic is of interest to you.

must read if you are thinking that your company may get disrupted.

Good examples of what makes new companies agile and responsive.

Every new technology revolves around the mobile phone these days. It becomes even more clear these days: all the stories about refugees seeing their smartphone as essential, at the same level as food and shelter.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Mobile phones are everywhere. Think about them first for every new project or solution.

start at slide 42 to find out how to bring happiness to your web site.

A great visual review of everywhere computers touch our lives.

SilentCircle is the company behind the Blackphone and is now launching software and services, not only devices.


I wrote about the blackphone before and why it matters: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=blackphone


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The niche of extreme privacy and extreme secrecy will grow, as user and organizations are willing to pay a premium for security and privacy. Blackberry had the upper hand in this, not sure where they'll be in the future but it would make sense for them to consolidate this emerging market.


Also read: https://gigaom.com/2015/03/02/silent-circle-shows-off-more-powerful-blackphone-2-privacy-phone/

The detailed review of a presentation by futurist Gerd Leonhard.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We under-estimating the sheer velocity of change. It is difficult to predict the future beyond 5 years and very often we under estimate it because we assume change is linear when very often it is exponential.

Detailed description of what happened to make the 2013 Target breach possible.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Many IT professionals have been claiming for years that cloud services were often more secure than in house solutions. Target breach - and the confidential report presented here - show how true this statement is.


Corollary to that, if your organization remains in house, then investments in security are mandatory and can deliver secure system without compromising accessibility.

A great analysis of the Target breach and how it happened.


Just a great list to get started in the topic is of interest to you.

Megan explain how she and her husband use slack to communicate and share during their normal lives.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We will see more of this in the future: blurring the lines between work and life solutions. Here it is slack, but many people already use evernote for planning vacation (not just taking business notes). We're also seeing companies giving fitbit devices (inherently a personal device) to employees so they can better track their health and wellness.

A review of the different type of wearable devices and software to track our fitness and wellness, and the shortcomings of many.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

As we enter the new age of internet of things,  quantified self and life logging, with our bodies and minds covered in sensors, our current information overload will grow exponentially. The need for algorithms that analyze all this data to translate the raw data into actionable information will become essential.

Knowledge is power.

Privacy is a serious consideration for anyone that uses digital products, services and social networks. LinkedIn recently made it possible for its users to download an archive of all the information it has about you. After all, it is our data: we should be able to get retrieve it easily. Below is a screengrab of all the information LinkedIn has emailed back to me when I placed my request.  

A recent post of mine on the information that LinkedIn allows you to download, and the other information it does not let you to download.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

All the data transparency and privacy policies of social networks and cloud providers often hides a lots of very private and personal information. It raises the questions on how to access this information, in world where more and more of our lives is in the hands of others without our knowledge (but often with our consent).

In a recent post, LinkedIn shared how their security experts roam the dark web to capture all passwords that have been breached and compares them to their users. If a stolen password is found, LinkedIn automatically resets the user password to protect the account.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This practice shows that large cloud service providers have security practices that are way more evolved than most corporations. Indeed I do not know any company that protects its systems in a way that LinkedIn claims to be doing here. It demonstrates how important security is to these cloud providers and the level of protection their users have against hackers. I often feel that my information is safer on cloud services than it is on my own laptop.


Privacy, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether.

Have your team take the test...

Then call me to see what we can do about the results!

I'd always thought that you had to be a first mover. Looks like late movers can also win - if they know what to do. Otherwise they disappear. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Very few established corporations in Montreal or Quebec are first movers it seems - I know I try to convince them. This paper highlights what you must do as a late mover to succeed and not become technology roadkill.

Interactive map showing all the underwater cables that carry phone and Internat data trafic. I live in Montreal and I am surprised how "well" the northern Canada region is cabled, given its small population. For comparison, Russia appears empty of cables.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Data networks are an essential part of our ability to conduct business globally (fiber optic cables introduce much less delay than satellite connections for example). If you rely on skype to speak with suppliers in China or friends in Australia, you realize how amazing this infrastructure is.


See here for an animated video of the network: http://uk.businessinsider.com/animated-map-global-fiber-optic-internet-cables-2015-9

And according to Amazon every 100ms delay reduces revenues by 1%. Speed remains very important: be careful and use tools such as Google Page Speed Insights to verify how well your website is doing.


Read this post to understand how to improve web speed: https://moz.com/learn/seo/page-speed


http://sco.lt/6TGReL

http://bit.ly/1idqlbe 

I agree this feels like a trend and if KPCB feels enough to name a partner, it must mean something.

This posts goes through the thousands of domain names that Donald Trump has acquired so that others cannot.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I've said for years that everyone should have a Facebook account and a twitter account, etc. if only to prevent others from "stealing" their virtual identify. Well it looks like trump's advisors have been telling him the same.

Oh well, too bad.

Made me think of stories I published in the past about how to disappear from the web http://sco.lt/4pi8g5 

A very simple introduction to eCommerce analytics and why it is so powerful.

No surprise, but always good to be reminded during budgeting and strategy season.

A short story on how I created a visual resume for myself and how I want to improve it.

Insights into the cost and revenues of Uber car service business.


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

It provides a benchmark and insight into this new business of technology-based car service business.

We think that having a fingerprint reader on your phone is a secure options but these guys show that it is not fool proof. Attention: technical read!

An overview of all the ways that thief use to capture our credit card and bank card numbers to fraud.


WHYIS THIS IMPORTANT

Even when very careful, you can get your credit card number stolen.

Also, we should fear the real world as much or more as the virtual world when it comes to fraud.

Same day delivery and especially food delivery have become very popular in past year. This post provides data on their growth and geo footprint.


In a similar note, Amazon is starting 1-hour booze delivery offer in Seattle: http://recode.net/2015/08/25/amazon-will-bring-you-booze-in-one-hour-starting-in-seattle/


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It appears to me like a money loosing business but it startup growth and financing in this field shows that we may be in "land grab" mode. 

For me, I am in a wait and see mode to evaluate if they ever are going to make money.

In January 2015, the FBI released stats showing that between Oct. 1, 2013 and Dec. 1, 2014, some 1,198 companies lost a total of $179 million in so-called business e-mail compromise (BEC) scams, also known as “CEO fraud.” The latest figures show a marked 270 percent increase in identified victims and exposed losses. Taking into account international victims, the losses from BEC scams total more than $1.2 billion, the FBI said.

We often think that malware (ie. computer viruses) are big business but it looks like emails scams are an even bigger one.


Made me think of recent scams publicized in Montreal local papers.

banking fraud: http://www.lapresse.ca/201101/24/01-4363327-fini-lhameconnage-place-au-harponnage.php

government employees: http://www.lapresse.ca/le-droit/politique/fonction-publique/201406/23/01-4778248-environ-2000-fonctionnaires-hameconnes.php


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Business email scams are difficult to protect against because users are the weak link and technology has limited means to prevent that. Businesses should make sure all employees are briefed on the security hazards of email scams and how to prevent them. Below is link on how banks try to help prevent email scams: worth reading.

http://www.cba.ca/en/consumer-information/42-safeguarding-your-money/91-email-fraud-phishing 

Interesting trend that had money being printed to become a collector's item.


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

When Google Pay and Apple Pay become the norm, printed bills will become as useless as stamps or printed books or records. Which may mean that they'll become collector items and become works of art to be kept and cherished and used for the fun of it. Maybe.

We have the privilege of meeting with thousands of entrepreneurs every year, and in the course of those discussions are presented with all kinds of numbers, measures, and metrics that illustrate the promise and health of a particular company. Sometimes, however, the metrics may not be the best gauge of what’s actually happening in the business, or people may use different definitions of the same metric in a way that makes it hard to understand the health of the business.

So, while some of this may be obvious to many of you who live and breathe these metrics all day long, we compiled a list of the most common or confusing ones. Where appropriate, we tried to add some notes on why investors focus on those metrics. Ultimately, though, good metrics aren’t about raising money from VCs — they’re about running the business in a way where founders know how and why certain things are working (or not) … and can address or adjust accordingly.


Lists 16 metrics - well actually 13 metrics and 3 "tricks" to present them. From the leaders in the new technology startup, Andreesen Horowitz.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Sheds light into what investors are looking for in a startup and maybe also the critical metrics that digital technology companies should focus on. Also of interest, the post discusses how entrepreneurs try to dress up their numbers to make them appear more interesting than they are in reality.

Many complain about Android fragmentation however the data here suggests that 80% of the devices in use are on Android 4.0+. Not that bad. The report dates back to Aug 2014 and Google Android developer website has more recent numbers that show even less fragmentation https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html 


More interesting are the data about the screen size fragmentation, link between GDP and android version, etc. Android truly is a very democratic OS.

A good visual summary of recent data breaches.

Post that claims IT investment is flat but that overall spend in digital technologies will continue to increase, but it will happen outside the realm of IT and the CIO control.

This post introduces eigenvectors and their relationship to matrices in plain language and without a great deal of math. It builds on those ideas to explain covariance, principal component analysis, and information entropy.

The eigen in eigenvector comes from German, and it means something like “very own.” For example, in German, “mein eigenes Auto” means “my very own car.” So eigen denotes a special relationship between two things. Something particular, characteristic and definitive. This car, or this vector, is mine and not someone else’s.

Matrices, in linear algebra, are simply rectangular arrays of numbers, a collection of scalar values between brackets, like a spreadsheet. All square matrices (e.g. 2 x 2 or 3 x 3) have eigenvectors, and they have a very special relationship with them, a bit like Germans have with their cars.

An explanation of some key mathematical concepts required to make deep learning possible.


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Behind what looks like "magic" on Google search, google translate or IBM Watson lies mathematics algorithm that process large amount of data. This is essential information to understand how digital computing, big data and deep learning works.

We need similar kinds of principles laid down for the IoT. One idea, from technologist Limor Freid, is that we create a minimal bill of rights. Something that says open is better than closed, ensuring portability between devices. We must ensure that consumers, not companies, own the data collected by devices and that any devices that collect public data (such as traffic flows or crowd sizes) share that data in the public realm. Users should have the right to keep their data private, and be able to delete or back up data collected by the devices they own. We also need to ensure that individuals are compensated fairly for the information they create, rather than allowing the value to be skimmed off by what Jaron Lanier calls “siren servers,” which concentrate wealth in the hands of the few who control the data centers.

The article talks of a bill of rights for internet of things, but also provides examples of 35 years wifi solution running on a AAA battery and a LED equipped umbrella.

Watch the 2 min video at the end that explains how a 3d printed meniscus was used to replace a sheep one with success. 

Lots of good ideas that show how much flexibility we have when we design web pages, not just "news" homepages. Also provides some links to some of today's most progressive news delivery websites, including Quartz, Medium and others.


And then it lists the results of a brainstorm session, with many new ideas presented as handwritten notes. This is the most interesting part, as it uses the inline commenting features that are part of medium platform to get people insights into these new ideas.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It shows how a blog posting platform (medium) can be used to share information and gather readers insight embedded. Simply  amazing!

A project has been devised to map all internet of things devices in the Austin Texas area, and identify vulnerabilities. Cool demonstrations of what you can do with a drone and some technology skills.


See the full map here:

https://www.praetorian.com/iotmap/ 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

There will be 9B IoT devices soon and many more in the future. Great opportunities but it needs to be safe and private.

Not a big surprise here but always good to get the data.

Follow this link for the full report and survey results: https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/07/27/low-income-americans-worry-technology/


A review of what we know about the data breach.


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Interesting to see how pirates distribute their loot and wha constitutes valuable information, other than credit card numbers.


What is most interesting here I believe are these stats:

thousands of fake female profiles

- 90-95% of actual users are male

Speaks volume on the anonymity of the Internet and the lack of reliable information out there.


Also read this most insightful post on the Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/19/9178855/ashley-madison-data-breach-implications

A new sleep tracking device.


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Ring size, no screen, very small, 3 days of battery life: the future of wearable devices will be more like this I believe. Unobtrusive, with you all the time, the benefits comes form data analysis, not a big screen or multi-app support.

A good description of wirearchy, which is a new form of work organization


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Hierarchies have worked well for centuries, before the Internet communication mechanisms existed. Today's organizations could benefit from a more decentralized organization of its resources, fro faster more agile decision making.

Amazing explanation fo what a CDO should do.

Interesting stat: "every 100 milliseconds in delay costs Amazon them 1 percent in sales". 


Read the rest of the article for more.

You must listen to the video to get an idea how big this solution is.


Matt Keeter is amazing and this software CAD program is just amazing I find. Antimony solution just blew my mind. Read through the article then download the program and play with it: pure magic! 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

Antimony takes a different approach to software programming, exposing the logic very close to the end user to allow them to see what happens and control it in a very simple intuitive way.

Matt Keeter is amazing and this software CAD program is just amazing I find. Antimony solution just blew my mind. Read through the article then download the program and play with it: pure magic! 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

Antimony takes a different approach to software programming, exposing the logic very close to the end user to allow them to see what happens and control it in a very simple intuitive way.

I always find nuggets of information in this daily newsletter that provides me with 4 links worth reading.


WHY THIS MATTERS?

We all get our news from the same spot, this one is different.

A behind the scene description of what it takes to fulfill grocery orders.

As I pointed out when the "big five" IT changes came down the pike three years ago (mobile, social, cloud, consumerization, and big data), which were seen as an unprecedented series of simultaneous changes at the time -- and in which we are still mostly in the early to mid-point stages of adoption in organizations today -- that the gap between what's achievable and what's needed might become untenable. Combine these in-process changes with limited budget for tackling strategic new capabilities like open APIs, Internet of Things, omnichannel engagement, machine learning, digital business models, rethought digital workplaces, and new models of IT such as bi/tri-modal, and you have a pretty hard to climb mountain of accumulated technical debt.

A very insightful diagram within another interesting article, it charts the multiple technologies that organizations are faced with and that can provide serious disruptions by lowering costs or enabling new business models.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

It says "technology" and everyone thinks CIO but in reality those changes will impact every unit in the organization so every leader must be aware of them and have a plan to manage the accompanying change from a people and process standpoint.

The Tesla Model S is the most connected car in the world. It might surprise you to hear that it is also one of the most secure. In this talk we will walk you through the architecture of a Tesla Model S noting things that Tesla got right as well as identifying those that they got wrong. From this talk you will get an intimate understanding of how the many interconnected systems in a Tesla model S work and most importantly how they can be hacked. You will also get a good understanding of the data that this connected car collects and what Tesla does with this telemetry. We will also be releasing a tool that will enable Tesla Model S owners to view and analyse that telemetry in real time. Finally we will also be releasing several 0day vulnerabilities that will allow you to hack a Tesla Model S yourself - both locally and remotely. Note - only one of the 6 vulnerabilities we will discuss and release has been fixed. Disclaimer: With great access comes great responsibility - In other words we are not responsible for any Tesla Model S bricked by over enthusiastic attendees of this talk :)

I love August because it is the month where hacking conferences are held. And they always have their share of flamboyant hacks like this one. Looking forward to see what this year's crop will bring...


Also read the short piece in the WSJ about the hack and what it does.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/06/hackers-take-control-of-a-tesla-sort-of/ 

Short read that reminds us all how important it is to get out of our IT or technology environment and spend time with "real people".


The formula is simple: 33% in IT, 33% with business, 33% with clients.


Time well spent indeed as they will, for sure, give you a reality check every single time.

WE are seeing this more and more: different way to operate in IT by using software as a service and letting the business run with technology projects. And it works... but only if the top leadership is present and drives the show. Because the head winds are very strong.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

If you ask, then my answer will not be useful. Or appreciated.

Apple just announced they’re adding period tracking to the built-in iOS Health app, but there are plenty of apps for iOS and Android that have been offering in-depth period tracking for ages.

Here are some of the best I found.

This is getting very personal.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

Most people would not even think about tracking their every move and data like the quantified self movement is promoting. However, we are providing more and more of our intimate data to our apps and websites, as evidenced by these apps, some of which come pre-installed on iPhones. This is bound to raise privacy issues in the future.

Basically it confirms that 8hrs of sleep and weekends make you happier.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

Big data will provide us with more and more of these proofs based on facts gathered from millions of people and events.

Top digital companies maintain an engineering blog where they post articles on how they handle software engineering problems, promote their skills, and try to attract the best new candidates for open job positions.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

If large successful companies do it, why don't you?

Jibo and Blue Frog make robots that allow developers to write apps for them.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Robots of this kind will be easy to configure or customize for your own need, say helping with tasks or performing specific computations. This would enable robots to tuly become personal assistant same way the iPhone is not only a phone but a computer platform with a phone in it.

Reporter has gone to dark web to find out that user information of quality is worth almost 100$.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

There is an opportunity for a company to start charging higher fees to collect and protect your digital identity. Today it seems Apple may be gearing towards that model: you pay more for its services than Google, Amazon, Facebook and others but they - as far as we know - do not sell your data.

Having powerful vision processing is essential to allow self driving cars autonomy. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Very powerful but cheap vision processing are coming. They are targeted at self driving cars because of the high volume potential but any other industry will be able to leverage this power for artificial vision.

Luxury watch now includes an NFC chip to allow it to be recognized by digital devices such smartphones.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

Access to your wrist will become key in the future for security reasons. You wear a watch all the time and can never leave home without it as you could a phone or another device. As multi-factor authentication gains in popularity, the watch will become an essential component for payment, authentication, etc. And with Apple now trying to secure they are the only device on your wrist (no way you'll wear multiple devices), luxury brands will try to incorporate electronics into their analog watches.

Useful data on eCommerce


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

eCommerce will account for 8.8% of all sales in 2020: that leaves a *lot* of room for late adopters to get started and take their place in the virtual world.

IDC research maps all the technologies that support digital marketing today.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

CMOs compete more and more with CIOs for technology direction and spend, a trend that keeps growing. It raises the questions: who's in charge of technology in large organizations, marketing or IT?

Yes Montreal is getting more and more active in the technology startup area.

Very much worth a listen.

MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte’s 2015 global study of digital business found that maturing digital businesses are focused on integrating digital technologies, such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud, in the service of transforming how their businesses work. Less-mature digital businesses are focused on solving discrete business problems with individual digital technologies.


The ability to digitally reimagine the business is determined in large part by a clear digital strategy supported by leaders who foster a culture able to change and invent the new. While these insights are consistent with prior technology evolutions, what is unique to digital transformation is that risk taking is becoming a cultural norm as more digitally advanced companies seek new levels of competitive advantage. Equally important, employees across all age groups want to work for businesses that are deeply committed to digital progress. Company leaders need to bear this in mind in order to attract and retain the best talent.

A survey by MIT and Deloitte on the maturity of organization regarding digital yields useful insights on the state of digital in corporations in 2015.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

Over 75%of corporations are digitally immature so there is room to improve in the future. Also, I expect that as individuals (especially older generations that are still in leadership positions) mature in their digital understanding and their own digital maturity, this will help organizations grow as well.

When electricity became widely available after the industrial revolution, it didn’t change things overnight; it took many decades for it to make a difference. To start with we used it at the edges and embellished what we had. Factories used the very same belts to power the same equipment in the same places and, powered by one electric motor, the benefits were marginal.

Only in retrospect was the error of their thinking obvious. Some 20 years later it was clear that electricity was core, it was something that changed the very fabric of what was possible and how to do it. The real power of electricity allowed factories to be arranged in totally different ways, to reduce staffing, work 24/7, make new things and, above all else, relocate from locations near fuel to areas near ports and population for workers.

Makes the case that digital should be part of every company strategy, like electricity is part of every company and there is no "Chief electricity officer".


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you don't get why this is important, then carry on. You'll just miss the boat.

Some very interesting data and review of how hackers break computer security mechanisms and violate our privacy.


WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Privacy is one of our biggest digital challenge I believe. Being aware of the problem is the first step.

A team of engineers remotely gain control over a Jeep and demonstrate vulnerabilities in its computer systems.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I wrote about this before as a reminder that digital transformation enables great new opportunities as well as new security and privacy issues.


More about this here http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=carJacking 

Behind "intelligent" solutions there are lots of hand crafted manual inputs.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you invest enough money (Google is rumoured to spend 2B$ a year to manually edit its maps), you can make a physical representation of the world that computers can then use to provide valuable insight: driving directions, translation, music recommendation, etc. that all appear "intelligent". What can you do in a company to achieve the same result? Map out your warehouses so that autonomous vehicles can navigate their aisle autonomously? Yes. Codify all the tasks that your manufacturing resources do so as to make recommendations in real-time? Yes. You just have to have a business model to warrant the investment.

Facebook also is adding "buy" button. Social commerce is finally here.


Digital is affecting marketing groups more than others. This accenture survey shows where the transformation is most profound and expects the next 5 years to be key.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Marketing resources are typically not very tech savvy and yet this survey shows that digital skills, especially analytics, will become central. Leaders should embark in a digital transformation of their team, reviewing skills and organization structure.

Very simple intro to cloud. Part of a new series on Yahoo that I assume is the brainchild of Katie Couric.

A new project from Google, the video is a must see to understand what they plan on doing. This appears to be a long term project.

Data on venture funding of wearables startups with links to other interesting posts.

Some 250 miles above the Earth, a flock of shoebox-size Dove satellites is helping to change our understanding of economic life below.

In Myanmar, night lights indicate slower growth than World Bank estimates. In Kenya, photos of homes with metal roofs can show transition from poverty. In China, trucks in factory parking lots can indicate industrial output.

Images from these and other satellites, combined with big-data software, are helping to create what former NASA scientist James Crawford calls a “macroscope” to “see things that are too large to be taken in by the human eye.” Aid organizations can use the results to distribute donations. Investors can mine them to pick stocks.

“This is one of those really rare game changers that come along very infrequently but has the ability to remake the whole stock- and economic-research industry,” said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex Group, a New York-based brokerage. “We still make monetary policy in this country based on surveys of a few thousand households and businesses.”


Analysis of satellite images using Big Data tools can measure economic activity in real-time with little bias.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies can use this as early warning signal of growth or slowdown in the market or with competitors and take appropriate response: buying or dumping stock, ramping up or slowing down production, selecting areas to open new stores or focus marketing dollars.

A review of social media "buy" buttons in pinterest, facebook and others.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Forrester believes the "buy buttons" in social media site will not work but will remain as they provide information about buyer intent and taste. Good to know when preparing an eCommerce strategy.

Author makes the compelling argument that web design is not essential anymore as we consume our web in standardized forms, well recognized patterns and many different forms (mobile app anyone?).


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Web consumption has been codified and its patterns defined over the past 20 years. sOmeone looking to innovate on the web still can I would argue, but most businesses do not need to and thus must identify partners that can decipher the web codes for them and identify the best ones to propel their business. Plus there is a reference to an AI based web design solution called the Grid which I had never heard of before but sounds promising.

A very good review of electric business case for urban transportation. I picked the chart that shows the price drop of solar energy price because it demonstrates visually why we may now be at an inflection point.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Electric transportation may be the first in a series of transformations where energy production becomes low cost whith very high battery densities providing long term autonomy, an essential component of the mobile aspect of digital transformations.

Great review of essential tools in everyone's computer and mobile phone.WHY THIS IS IMPORTANTStrong password are our only protection for our digital lives and yet to many people still rely on simple and easy to guess ones. I wrote about this many times before http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=password, and this article provides links and ratings for different solutions on the market.And by the way, when possible, always turn on two-factor authentication : see http://sco.lt/6DAZgv

11 tips to improve conversion in eCommerce websites. Based on actual research and data.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We build eCommerce sites to sell stuff and we are still learning what works and what does not, the equivalent of "aisle end caps" or placing products at eye level in a traditional store. This is useful for anyone building an eCommerce website.

From a 9$ computer to a cell phone that does just calls, this is a quick review of crowfunded projects on kickstarter.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Crowdfunding may help revolutionize how fast new technologies get introduced to market and democratized. If a small bunch of guys in 1975 California HomeBrew club got to revolutionize the world by creating the home computer industry (it is where Apple computer got first introduced), technology crowfunding may allow do-it-yourselvers with a similar opportunity.

IBM is now training Watson to be a cancer specialist. The idea is to use Watson's increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence to find personalised treatments for every cancer patient, by comparing disease and treatment histories, genetic data, scans and symptoms against the vast universe of medical knowledge.

Such precision targeting is possible to a limited extent, but it can take weeks of dedicated sleuthing by a team of researchers. Watson would be able to make this type of treatment recommendation in mere minutes.

The IBM program is one of several new aggressive health-care projects that aim to sift through the huge pools of data created by people's records and daily routines and then identify patterns and connections to predict needs. It is a revolutionary approach to medicine and health care that is likely to have significant social, economic and political consequences.

IBM Watson computer is now being trained as a medical doctor and is now study for a fellowship in cancer diagnosis and treatment.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

All jobs are candidates to replaced or drastically transformed by software. I wrote about this in the past but this text in paper says it best.


"While there's much debate about the extent to which technology is destroying jobs, recent research has driven concern. A 2013 paper by economists at the University of Oxford calculated the probability of 702 occupations being automated or " roboticised " out of existence and found that a startling 47 per cent of American jobs - from paralegals to taxi drivers - could disappear in coming years. Similar research by MIT business professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee has shown that this trend may be accelerating and that we are at the dawn of a "second machine age"." 


Also see

- about the second machine age and digital transformation 

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=mcaffee 

- half of jobs are vulnerable http://sco.lt/5Loi3d 

- impact on jobs 

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=jobs 

Video that shows how Google self driving cars see the world. Starting at around 7min30s


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Something that we often take for granted is in fact extremely complex because of the large number of use cases you have to support to have a truly reliable system. What is fascinating is how all the data gathered during all the trips (3M miles) is used daily to "train" the system and verify that changes and improvement actually learn from all these years and situations. This is a good reason why Google is building a system that will become the most reliable possible. Can we do this in other situations, to better train or validate software solutions?


I wrote about this many times before, see http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=self-driving for additional reading.

Appirio 400 employees were offered free FitBit device for free and in return they got a 5% reduction in their insurance premiums. Similar program for BP America 24000 employees and relatives.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Again here the debate is how much is your personal information worth to you? We'll get more of these programs in the coming years so we all have to start asking ourselves how much we are willing to pay to keep our personal data private...?

It’s no secret: innovation is difficult for well-established companies. By and large, they are better executors than innovators, and most succeed less through game-changing creativity than by optimizing their existing businesses. Yet hard as it is for such organizations to innovate, large ones as diverse as Alcoa, the Discovery Group, and NASA’s Ames Research Center are actually doing so. What can other companies learn from their approaches and attributes? That question formed the core of a multiyear study comprising in-depth interviews, workshops, and surveys of more than 2,500 executives in over 300 companies, including both performance leaders and laggards, in a broad set of industries and countries (Exhibit 1). What we found were a set of eight essential attributes that are present, either in part or in full, at every big company that’s a high performer in product, process, or business-model innovation.

The chart says it all: digital transformation is the most significant IT trends in years.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Look at the chart. Again. ;-)

Must see and listen this series that delivers portraits of real people and how they have transformed their lives through digital. Fascinating.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It presents real-life people to understand key digital trends such as gaming for a living or youTube blogging. Plus I love the name they gave it!

Insurance company offers bluetooth toothbrushes to clients to reduce their premiums - if they brush well.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Big data and digital connected things have the potential to transform entire industries and it looks like the insurance industry is one of them. With Desjardins ajusto mobile app (http://www.desjardins.com/ca/personal/insurance/car-insurance/ajusto/) good drivers get up to 25% premium discounts, Oscar fitbit tracker users get lower premiums as well (and the startup gets a crazy 15B$ valuation http://www.businessinsider.com/oscar-raises-145-million-at-a-15-billion-valuation-2015-4), the trend appears to be clear: give us access to your data and we'll give you a better deal.

A real big data company, dataminr goes through twitter and many other sources to perform real-time information discovery.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This solution goes beyond making nice charts and delivers predictions based on a myriad of sources. It may be the tip of the iceberg to provide companies with early warming signs of impending doom or success.

Google has released its first monthly report for the self-driving car project as it starts to drives its new vehicles in the streets.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The reports contains stats of course but also a list of all the accidents that the cars were involved in during the years (1.8M miles). Given the excellent track record to date, I would start to look into licensing the technology if I was relying heavily on cars and trucks for my business: transportation of goods to remote areas, deliveries, closed-campus passenger travels, etc.

Great data to support the rise of mobile and the need to support mobile devices.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Businesses must not only transform to become digital they must also consider mobile devices and services first to match what their customers are doing (and where they are living they digital lives).

This week's businessweek edition is devoted to an explanation of software coding. T=yOu can read the whole thing online here

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Marc Andreesen (the guy that created Netscape) has said software will eat the world (I wrote about it here http://sco.lt/8PmkrJ)and Business Week recognizes that it is essential for everyone to know what is software code. It does not mean everyone needs to start coding for a living but rather that everyone should have at least the basics of software programming because it runs everything around us, from our cars to our appliances.

2015 MObiLe PRediCTiONs: feW fiRMs WiLL eMbRaCe The MObiLe MiNd shifT

Mobile reached a tipping point in 2014 as it solidified its position as one of the most disruptive technologies for businesses in decades. Not since the advent of the Internet has a technology forced businesses to completely rethink how they win, serve, and retain customers. Forrester believes that in the future, the new competitive battleground will be the mobile moment. Why? Consumers expect to engage with brands to get any information or service they desire, immediately and in context. Today, 18% of US online consumers have this expectation, while 30% are in the midst of a transition to this mind shift.1 This revolution is taking place quickly around the world: Forrester forecasts that 42% of the total population globally will own a smartphone by the end of 2015.2 Forrester also believes that in 2015, the gap will increase between marketing leaders who re-engineer their businesses to deliver valuable mobile moments and the majority of marketing executives, who will continue to take a myopic approach by considering mobile as just another digital channel.


Leaders Will Re-engineer businesses To deliver Mobile Moments

Next year, we expect smart marketers to shift their focus away from mobile apps and instead re-focus their sights on first-party data; privacy; analytics; brand experiences; and the broader digital business transformation underway and the role mobile will play in it. Mobile-shifted marketers will strive to build valuable mobile moments that extend beyond mobile phones, apps, and websites and will depend heavily on massively responsive data services and systems of engagement internally.  

I don't like predictions but this article is a bit different as it lays down "actions for marketers" - and they also apply to other groups in organizations, especially IT and CIO.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Mobile cannot be an afterthought and still requires a lot of care to execute properly. Forrester also raises some very interesting examples such as: "Mobile-enabled business models will disrupt the value chains of entire industries. AliveCor’s $199 heart monitor, plus a mobile phone, offers a $4.99 alternative to the $200 to $300 price tag of a traditional cardiogram, in addition to extending the service to those consumers without access to medical facilities."

The paper summarizes what it takes to digitally transform a business, from strategy to execution.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Cut-n-paste this into your next strategic leadership retreat and you should be asking the right questions to steer your digital transformation. I will use it from now on to define what I do as a consultant.

Brilliant idea form shopify: build a new eCommerce business from scratch and show everyone what you did and how you did it.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Everyone in large corporation must look at this to understand how easy it is to start an eCommerce business. If you don't others will because the investment is so limited. Also notice that the issue is not with technology anymore but rather it is with what every traditional business must deal with on a daily basis: building a brand name and promoting the product and service.

Great way to use flatscreens!

The article describes why cloud computing and software as a service will become a huge business in the near future.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The article pretty much lays down the reasons why I believe that digital transformation of businesses will have a profound impact and why I started the blog 2 years ago.

CDOs are high level executives that work together or will replace CIOs in some cases.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Many organizations let CMOs drive the digital show or watch passively as the CIO tries to do something. Naming a CDO and making them high level executives - here a senior VP - gives them the power and the influence to imprint a digital transformation in the organization.

Home Depot has been doing eCommerce for a while and realizes it has become essential to drive traffic to stores.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies that stay away from eCommerce because sales are not yet meaningful in their industry (grocery, furniture, etc.) may be missing out on bringing more people to their stores and improving their experience, branding, etc.

In short: you've got to to do eCommerce, whatever industry you are in.

Google trends now an even more useful tool for insights with real-time updates and other improvements.

No surprise here. The 6 critical success factors are:

  1. Emphasize minimum viable products rather than ‘big bang’ releases

  2. Treat users as part of the day-to-day development team

  3. Expect and tolerate failure

  4. Adopt agile approaches to software development

  5. Give developers quality-assurance and testing responsibility

  6. Invest in cutting-edge capabilities

McKinsey proposes 10 ways self driving cars will impact our lives in 3 eras. The first one is the next 5 years (until 2020).


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies should should include the impact of self driving cars in their 5 to 10 year strategic plans. 


Most discard self-driving cars because they only see them replacing individual cars, which won't happen until 2030 at least. However, self driving cars will first impact niche applications and I assume this will impact the supply chain: procurement, distribution, etc.Companies should thus include self-driving as part of their strategies for : distribution logistics, warehouse automation, campus deliveries (closed circuit), farming, mining, etc.

A good review of the open compute project from Facebook. Lots of links to follow.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Everything is moving to the cloud and the OCP open source designs are the basis for servers and equipments that run cloud data centers. This is bound to increase innovation speed and reduce cost. It may also lead the way for other open sourcing of hardware projects and solutions.

I don't report on news items, as they tend not to age gracefully. However I report on news announcements that can have a  profound impact and this is one: shopify allows you to sell your products on pinterest. 


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Pinterest becomes your own crowdsourced catalogue where millions of people assemble products into meaningful visual browsable curated categories. Your catalog then becomes a repository of products: pinterest becomes your marketing social network. HUGE.

In one diagram, BCG captures the impact of digital transformation: everything is being digitized and what is not already will soon be. Question is: what will your company do with all that data?


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Companies that embrace change early become market leaders: there is no prize for 2nd place anymore. BCG suggest implications for executives.

Bruce Schneier is a legend in the security and privacy world and he explains in a 30 minute talk (20min if you listen at 1.5x speed ;-) the content of his new book. He makes me want to read it (good job I guess) but also closes with an interesting analogy: data is the pollution of the information age.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Bruce raises the issue of privacy but also ventures into solutions, which is rare because it is a difficult subject with no straight answer. He makes the case that there is duality in producing data and analyzing it: it is both useful and dangerous. Every company is faced with the questions that Bruce raises.

Emory University subsidizes fitbit wearable step tracking devices to improve 1200 employee wellness, leveraging the fitbit corporate wellness program http://bit.ly/1cNGtgv


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We think digital devices, wearables, watches, and fitness apps as personal health improvement devices. Corporations are also seeing them as useful ways to improve their bottom lines as they expect that healthier employees are more productive, less prone to taking sick days, etc. I expect this trend to grow at a rapid pace in the future.


Warning: of course, this raises a number of concerns regarding information privacy and the use of private health data by corporations. The fear that employees may have - I know I would - is that the corporation will use the data to discriminate against employees. For example, they could raise or lower certain benefits, such as insurance premiums, for employees that do not exercice as much as others. Big data coming from millions of device users could provide those "standards" or benchmarks. A proper governance program must be put in place along with strong and long-term communication plan.


Further reading using the wearables, data or privacy tags in my blog

http://bit.ly/1cNHSU4

http://bit.ly/1cNI1Hb

http://bit.ly/1cNI5Xj 

Looks good but not certain I am ready for so much personal data but I guess it has to happen at some point in time... ;-)

Super smart event that brings startups together with large corporations. A montreal first AFAIK.

The bottle promises to track your water intake and remind you when you have not taken enough.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT?

All quantified self trackers want to track your food and water intake but it is a pain to do it manually. I guess this lowers the barrier to track your life thoroughly.

Been waiting for this to emerge for a while given the intensity of interest around wearables and internet of things.


WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF BUSINESS?

In the wearable space, I guess what you want to wear are the sensors, not the processing gear. So being able to create cheap custom sensors allows businesses to gather more information  about the environment their products and people go through, then analyze it remotely to make decisions. This is a possible component towards that goal.

I made the right choice 30 years ago... but it was not a calculated one but rather a heart-felt one. Lucky choice I guess.

Estelle Metayer provides amazing examples of new and different information sources that you can leverage on the web.

Fitness drives the wearables market

I've been asked to connect with so many people recently, I've already wondered how they got to find me (I am very careful and always validate how I know a connection before I accept them in LI). This article is very timely as it provides ways to spot and manage not to get caught in accepting fake people that use social networks to spam.


Also follow the link on how to fake large twitter audience http://bit.ly/1Kw5EQ7

Data gathered with a simple device - the withings connected scale - can provide evidence of obesity and where it is most prevalent in Europe.

fascinating what data from many people can tell us.

No surprise in the data: people go to bed late on xmas and new year and wake up later the next morning. But the difference in each country seems to demonstrate that Americans don't party a lot and that French party more than many others. Here again, no surprise... ;-)

The reference for anyone tracking Internet related technologies and solutions. 196 slides of pure bliss...

Three years ago, on May 28th 2012, we announced the discovery of a malware known as Flame. At the same time we published our FAQ, CrySyS Lab posted their thorough analysis of sKyWIper. A few days earlier, Maher CERT published IOCs for Flamer. In short, Flame, sKyWIper and Flamer are different names for the same threat, which took the world by surprise as the first major discovery after Stuxnet and Duqu.

Since the discovery of Flame, we reported on many other advanced malware platforms, including Regin and Equation, yet Flame remains special in terms of being one of the most complex, surprising and innovative malware campaigns we have ever seen.

Looking back at the discovery of Flame, here are some lessons we learned.

A short account of the level of sophistication that computer viruses have achieved. And a video that pleades for the need to keep computers secure.

A slightly longer read than usual but very interesting step back for those that consider the impact of technology evolution.

For my friends in the insurance industry that are making the transition to packaged software, they may find confort in the following paper from McKinsey. The lessons learned and the 5 principles they highlight are good but do not provide a silver bullet or quick fix: you are in for a long and difficult transformation. Sorry...

Article is short but links to the IDC report is included.


This goes along with previous posts I wrote in the past: http://bit.ly/1Cgw469

Huge revolution around the way when these technologies become mainstream. Applications in healthcare, wellness, safety, quantified self, and many others in the business world will become possible.

Sunday morning must read. The article interview with 2 of the biggest proponents of digital transformation sheds light on a fact: not everyone will benefit from digital transformation. What is interesting is that middle class - the corner stone of American culture - is most affected by digital. As they say, "However, it’s not a great time to have only ordinary skills. Computers and robots are learning many basic skills at an extraordinary pace.

Health and fitness are top apps growth in Canada. Interesting...

I remember 1992! and just pre-ordered the narrative clip 2: can't wait to become a cyborg... ;-)

slack is an incredible app for internal team collaboration that is indeed killing email. Just now getting on board so really cannot comment in detail but appears to be useful and very "Web+mobile" friendly.


Phenomenal growth, the company is fastest to be valued at 1B$ (in nly 1.25 year - see http://read.bi/1SbJLuP) has 750k active users and adding 1M$ in revenue every 11 days.

How can students learn to code when their teacher are often clueless about it and software professionals - in high demand - make much much more as developers of games and 0.99$ ipad apps...? Lately resources are starting to appear - see some in the article.


Why is this important? IMHO learning to code is important because it teaches about structure and procedures and thinking through every possible scenario. It is a way of life, more than a technical skill. No?

The impossible SpaceX dream that somehow came true. Elon Musk’s space venture started out with a crazy idea, a moldy Soviet rocket manual, and a lot of spare cash, writes Ashlee Vance at Bloomberg. It almost cost Musk his other brainchild, Tesla Motors, but now SpaceX has matured into a $12-billion operation that launches a rocket a month.

Preview of a book on Elon Musk, it shows what entrepreneurs must go through  to make their dream a reality. You cannot doubt when you are an entrepreneur...

One more small step towards the day when I can reclaim all the time I loose in my car as I shuffle between client offices...

In this report Accenture presents 2 diagrams that pull together various technologies in the store and in the home to show where IoT can be deployed and why. It remains, at this time, futuristic but early adopters should take notice.

useful tool provides insights on customer behavior in different industries. May be useful to help plan your digital interactions.

Considering that a lot of people are treating their dogs better than some humans, I see the rise of products to quantify your dog or any other pet a growth industry.


More on quantified self here: http://bit.ly/1ECOYHW.

Very detailed explanation of energy storage, with lots of projections in the future. Essential to consider in our digital world.

Gives context to the announcement of Tesla batteries.

Interesting use of virtual reality. The real video starts at 6m30s approx.

Considering that a lot of people are treating their dogs better than some humans, I see the rise of products to quantify your dog or any other pet a growth industry.


More on quantified self herehttp://bit.ly/1ECOYHW.


Amazing to read about startups and the amount of transparency they provide, including a public revenue dashboard (bit.ly/1GxnMFz). You have to be very confident about yourself to do that!


I've been getting huge pushback from people when I suggest we should all lead quantified lives (http://sco.lt/5Iumx7). This is mostly due to privacy concerns which, I must admit, sound valid to me too. However, if you apply the same principles and technologies to animals, the whole concept becomes a lot more interesting, doesn't it?


Soon we may even see cows wearing apple watches... or not! ;-)

Provides an inside view of the world of automated warehouses.

Not sure a CEO would place marketing at the center of its organization but a CMO surely will and this paper makes the case that CMOs have become the digital leaders in many organization. Often, this is because CIOs are not up to the challenge.


In any case, I feel this is similar to what McKinsey has labelled the Consumer Decision Journey a while back.

http://sco.lt/8c19ov

Best 15 min (or 10 if you listen to it at 1.5x) of your time today is to listen to this speech which predicts:

- amazon to open a store

- facebook is your best bet to build a brand

- apple is now a luxury company

and more all delivered with facts, data, and other insights. I love this.


iNeoMarketing’s Outsourcing delivers the vetted talent you need under your complete management and control. Contact us to see how.

Top skills on LinkedIn and for Marketing sound like software development and math/statistics: tell your kids to learn software development and be good in Science in school!

This scoop comes to you compliments of ineomarketing.com.                                           

anyone interested in devOps and continuous integration, this is a pretty good list of different architectures deployed in both large and small organizations.

Must read to understand what it means to be an employee in the new digital world...

I wrote about this in 2013 when the conference happened http://sco.lt/97hSPx but it remains a concern today. Scary.

Google prints money. It made $56 billion in revenue and earned $13 billion in its last full fiscal year.

All of that cash has kept Google shareholders happy for a very long time, so happy that they didn’t seem to care when the company opened up the door to competitors or missed a few pivotal trends. Even as Google's growth slows and the company matures, I’m sure that shareholders could stay happy for a little while longer. Analysts say the company will add $31 billion in search revenue alone over the next five years.

But money doesn’t mean that all is well in Mountain View, California. Tiny fissures have appeared in Google's façade. Its share of the U.S. search market fell to 75.2 percent in December from 79.3 percent a year ago. That piece of the pie could get smaller this year if Apple cancels its deal to use Google as its default mobile search engine. That would be a big loss. Citigroup analyst Mark May says that 60 percent of Google's mobile search revenue in 2014 came from the Apple deal.

Google stock has underperformed. It’s down 11 percent over the last year, versus a 14 percent gain for the Nasdaq and a 36 percent gain for Facebook.

The Google of 2015 is not unlike the early 2000s Microsoft – a hugely profitable company that is having a hard time innovating around its core product. Unless something is done, it will likely go through spasms of flailing and discontent that will be familiar to longtime veterans of the Redmond, Washington software giant.

For all of its innovation, best captured by Eric Schmidt’s “How Google Works,” Google is a 55,000-person behemoth, and it’s nearly impossible for any company to move quickly and creatively at that size. Among tech giants, only Apple has managed to innovate after becoming so big. Hewlett Packard? Nope. IBM? No way.

Despite all the talk about Google’s much vaunted moonshots - self-driving cars and Google Glass, internet-connected balloons and drone deliveries - the company is still basically a purveyor of cheap online ads that it sells at massive volume against the things that we search for online. Advertising accounted for $51 billion of the company’s $56 billion in revenue last year.

The most valuable thing that the official moonshot incubator, Google X, has produced isn’t innovative products that will maintain Google’s search dominance. It’s good PR. It codified the idea that Google is always trying new stuff and failing because that’s what true, crazy, bountiful innovation looks like.

With the Google X mythology, Google has cover for all sorts of (sometimes expensive) failures, including the aforementioned smart glasses. It also has cover for failed products that could be more germane to the core business' success, like social networks (R.I.P. Google Plus and Google Buzz), payments (Google Wallet, in remembrance) and storage (wither Google Cloud Platform?).

The willingness to fund a division like Google X means that Google wants to test the boundaries in lines of business where success doesn’t really count in the here and now. But that hasn’t saved Google from stagnating in ways that do.


Click headline to read more--

A similar viewpoint from yesterday'S article in Forbes.

Never really thought we'd get there but reading the article you wonder if this may not be the truth... May you live in interesting times. I think we are....

More reading about the new role of the CIOs.


Also read about Disrupt IT, a book about the subject

http://amzn.to/1FBZsSB

or a previous blog post

http://sco.lt/9L8JMn 

Sounds like a good read for new CIOs, and those in position today.

driverless cars will soon be very popular and require completely news ways to tests the systems before they are deemed road worthy. Nice chart that shows the projected number of fully and partially autonomous cars we should expect to see on roads. Let's come back to it in a few years to see if reality will line up to this chart or blow past it...

Not sure where I stand on whether this is for real or just fancy marketing. But reading that they have over 200 people focussed on technology innovation makes me think this is for real. So what does it mean for other fast food chains and retailers?...

A good benchmark to see if you should spring for an amazon prime membership.

Auto replenishment sounds like a great idea. This data provides some isights on how people are actually using the service and its popularity - although it dates back to 2011. Grocers and CPC should take notice...


Also see

- Amazon subscribe & save auto replenishment solution http://sco.lt/7hBku1

- Amazon Dash button announcement

Not sure this is the right thing - I can't imagine having 1500 of these buttons around the house - but would make sense say in a business environment for seldom ordered products that you are not sure needs to order them. I am thinking about printer ink cartridges or some lubricant in a machine shop.


Fits perfectly with Amazon subscribe & save auto replenishment solution http://sco.lt/7hBku1

amazon has been offering this service since 2011 with little fanfare. Why is this service not standard in every eCommerce website?

no surprise here, but interesting to see for comparison purpose.

This pretty much spell "digital transformation" for a new CIO

May help explain (in part) why mobile apps have such low retention rates.

I love this as it makes clear why digital is different and in what respects.

Simple recommendations on how to improve your eCommerce site and sell more. Applies to big retailers and smaller one as well.

I would argue the real message in these charts is that most mobile apps have failed to deliver a good user experience or are very badly created/updated. With every company going mobile, this chart should speak volume to any executive about to spend 100K$ or more for its next app.


Read this post to understand why retention rate is so low

Why pixels is not always the answer http://bit.ly/1MvzvNy via @Estelle Metayer

And to think people are scared of being spied on because of digital technology, mobile phones and web browsers. Looks like just driving around is now sufficient... ;-)

This analysis is very in depth and looks at many different angles to show how and why we pick simple passwords. I continue to be amazed by the lack of proper passwords being used by people in general.


This study is recent but I assume things may change quite rapidly and solutions such as lastpass or password box are helping change this trend.


Also I assume this applies well to the USA but may be different in Canada, Quebec and elsewhere due to differences in language and culture.


Also consider reading: Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can't Protect Us Anymore | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

Interesting insights on digital changes in organizations.

I am a HUGE fan of the minimum viable product concept as I find it applies to everything. It helps focus the mind. I recommend it everywhere I can.

I post so you can watch the video of the self-driving tesla S.


Reminds me of a saying they taught us in enterprise architecture class: when given a chance, always bet on technology because it matures much faster than anything else. 

great checklist for performing marketing audits and assessments

Raises an important question as we give more and more autonomy to machines: cars, taxis, delivery vehicles, trains, etc.

Raises an important question as we give more and more autonomy to machines: cars, taxis, delivery vehicles, trains, etc.

Catchy statement. Well worth listening to the 30min interview for more insights.

A great read for anyone interested in innovation within an organization. In particular, I found the 10000 things list reference to be quite unique and quite powerful.

Go past the first few minutes, the talk picks up real good as soon as she starts to speak about cyber-bulling and raises grave concerns about online privacy and the commercialization of stories such as hers.

A great review of the self-driving car solutions, with links to other articles on the subject.

The article has little to offer in terms of "how" they did it other than state their use of OneCommerce which is a Hybris partner solution for in-store commerce and mobile. Interesting case study nevertheless.


Worth mentioning that Canadian Tire also has acquired One Commerce.

Very good case study of 5 year experience on eCommerce for PMCtire.com, a web pure play that sells tires (!) online. In french.

This scoop comes to you compliments of ineomarketing.com.                                           

Grocery eCommerce is small but may be in line to disrupt a huge industry?

Innovation landscape in the "traditional, slow paced" food industry may be about to change... no?

I had never heard of "crowdfooding" before... ;-)

Wondering how to use geofencing in your mobile apps? this paper presents 5 examples.

Some of those geofencing solutions actually appear to be useful, especially the UBER and Walmart ones.

Not everyone has a mobile phone when they shop groceries but everyone pushes a cart. So having a connected cart - especially if it costs only 7.60$ to retrofit - makes perfect sense, no?

Based on the performance of countries on the index during the years 2008 to 2013, we assigned them to one of four trajectory zones: Stand Out, Stall Out, Break Out, and Watch Out.

Stand Out countries have shown high levels of digital development in the past and continue to remain on an upward trajectory.
Stall Out countries have achieved a high level of evolution in the past but are losing momentum and risk falling behind.
Break Out countries have the potential to develop strong digital economies. Though their overall score is still low, they are moving upward and are poised to become Stand Out countries in the future.
Watch Out countries face significant opportunities and challenges, with low scores on both current level and upward motion of their DEI. Some may be able to overcome limitations with clever innovations and stopgap measures, while others seem to be stuck.

Easier and easier to create simple mobile apps.

a list of the VR projects and solutions out there.

Even anonymous data can be used to identify you, when coupled with other information.

How the noise from your camera sensor can help authorities identify you as the author of a picture. Nowhere to hide...

Great concept for the growing number of freelance workers and small businesses. Low cost office workspace rented by the hour. A friend booked a small space for a 4 person workshop yesterday in Montreal Balfour location. Small location, easy to access, clean with a white board and furniture, even a nespresso machine. You get there, "checkin" using the breather app, get a code to unlock the door and there you go. At 15$ an hour, unbeatable...

Full of data that shows how different the perspective is on the IT function. CIOs believe they should cut cost and run servers, when in fact non-IT executives expect IT to deliver data and analytics, even if it means growing their budget. Must read for anyone in IT.

Beyond the catchy title, this short post highlights some very important links to help you determine if your browser sessions are safe Mine are not it seems...

I am proud to have helped shape the strategy with the Digital City Office. Great team, great vision.

I wrote about them in the past http://sco.lt/7FRff7 and I realize now that they are expanding their service offers into many other fields, including fitness which makes the whole solution way more personalized. Companies should take notice as they try to get more and more personal with their customers.

how grocery store food basket analysis provides new big data insights into customer segments. It leads to customer segments such as "natural sweetners".

Once you get over the initial novelty, online grocery shopping is all about low prices and quality of services it seems.

of course personal devices are in there but surprised not to see security concerns appear in there.

Always good insights from Franck Diana. This is especially good because of the angle it takes, looking at the world as if we were in 2025.

Interesting how innovation often rimes with digital transformation or disruption... This list provides 50 good starting points for those looking to reinvent their business.

Makes me think of www.recordedfuture.com or news.google.com on steroids. 

Source: Dadaviz http://dadaviz.com/i/3194 Worth scanning through this site because of their visualization variety.

Amazing insight on how new companies are using data to define their business model and evolve it.

Very thin but with some interesting stats nonetheless. especially the chart where IT spend is rising.

This is must see TV. Look at both the 60 minutes program and the unaired segment. It will confirm many of the things I've been highlighting for a while now regarding security and privacy, but also regarding car hacking. 


I am not a pessimist but I believe security should be more present as we make our digital transformation.

some good links of tools to get you going on the competitive intelligence track.

It’s not enough to just implement new controls and technologies around the systems, though; smart organizations are dedicating teams to look in the deep crevices of the web for detailed information on threats to their environments. World news and events, potentially controversial company announcements, new executive appointments, industry and partner breaches, industry-specific malware — all of these and more can indicate a risk, and analysts need to find the intelligence that must be acted upon to protect the company and its customers. The wealth and scope of available information can be overwhelming for intelligence analysts, however. While in the past actionable and credible threat intelligence could be elusive, now information can be found online anywhere, at any time, in any language. With the volume of information and limited resources and budgets, organizations need to be strategic in their intelligence gathering.

First time I hear of "open source intelligence" (OSINT). should be good.

Hundreds of posts from Harvard business school students discussing topics related to digital transformation. Must read.

security, security, security...

Capgemini always produces useful articles in these magazines. Must read to stay current.

See trends in IT and Marketing in slides 7 & 8

A recent google adwords announcement provides more omni channel integration for its customers. It links display ads to in-store visits, trying to better measure the ad conversions using mobile android location services.


See also http://adwords.blogspot.ca/2014/12/measure-more-improving-estimated-total.html

The article describes MIT research that proves anonymous data provides sufficient information to identify you when merged with location, date and other purchase data. There is no privacy when Big Data is mined.


Compare this with previous posts on the subject http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?tag=Privacy 

or this specific post about a German politician life exposed via his cell phone location data http://sco.lt/7shPsH 

In the context of recent announcements regarding Montreal Smart and Digital city recently unveiling a 23M$ investment budget.


Presentation - #Montreal Smart and Digital City : 2014-2017 Montreal Strategy https://lnkd.in/deCJnUR  #innmtl #smartcity

Always good to keep watching England where Ocado is grossing 1B pound in revenues.


I wrote about Ocado in the past http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=ocado with detailed reports highlighting the company revenues, and cost structure.

no surprise that security, big data, AI and mobile are there but Finance, really?

Marketing folks are betting 2015 will be the year of customer experience, personalization and Big Data. Omni channel will also be a big focus.

Read this article, then force your kids to read it too, then explain it to them. I know I will.

Very scary. I wrote about this a year ago http://sco.lt/5xXDI9 and recent events in Paris - shooters filmed everything using their goPro - make me believe that my prediction that shootings may soon be live streamed over Internet could become a reality soon.

The paper advocates HR departments to become more networked and embraces technologies more. Read with care and remember this is a promoted report from a software company. The conclusions remain valid IMHO.

Deep dive into the world of retail analytics where buying behaviour is dissected and analyzed. Provides an example where Target was able to successfully identify that a teenager was pregnant before she told anyone. Which led her parents to discover the truth when they started received coupons for baby care products in the mail. Spooky but considering what I know and that the article was written 3 years ago, this is, unfortunately, old news with old technology. Today, we are much better at it...


Must read.

An overview of Deep Learning, a field of artificial intelligence that propelled recent advances in image, video and speech processing. For those engineers of my generation, it enhances neural networks to reduce training required and opens the door to unattended learning, providing you have sufficient data for the networks to train themselves. And this is exactly the kind of stuff that google search, youtube, facebook and other large internet properties have plenty of.

more data on amazon cloud...

interesting statistics...

#1 – AddThis

#2 – ShareThis

#3 – LinkedIn

#4 – Facebook ads

#5 – Promoted tweets

#6 – Buffer

#7 – MailChimp

#8 – Storify

#9 – Hootsuite

#10 – Outbrain

Interesting how McKinsey presents digital innovation as both a threat and opportunity. In particular look at 7 traits of effective digital enterprises: it applies not only to banking.

    Wearable tech hasn’t caught on and hasn’t caught on. On Friday, Google withdrew Google Glass from consumer testing, and Apple has continually stalled on the release of their watch.


    Whether or not Apple eventually releases their watch to popular acclaim, wearable tech will eventually arrive in the mainstream. Probably during 2015. For marketers, this can be daunting. Comprehensive mobile and social media strategies are still hard to deliver, and here comes another, vaguely defined innovation that may turn marketing, again, on its head.


    We don’t really know what wearables will look like, and we don’t really know what they will do. So how can you prepare a marketing strategy?


    By relying on what marketers do best: creative thinking, looking for patterns from consumers, and a little bit of imagination. Here are four ways wearables will change marketing – and what you can do to be ready....

    Article raises 4 interesting paths to investigate for marketers and technologists as well.

    Biogen Idec has partnered with Google X, Google’s business unit for long-term “moonshot” projects, to study outside factors that might contribute to the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a report from Bloomberg.

    Google and Biogen will use sensors, software, and data analysis tools to collect and analyze data from people who have MS. The companies aim to explore why MS progresses differently in each patient.

    Bloomberg pointed out that Biogen has used digital tools for its disease research in the past. Last month, Biogen announced that it was using Fitbit activity trackers to gather data from people who have MS. It gave 250 Fitbit bands to participants to track their level of activity and sleep patterns. Last summer, the pharma company worked with Cleveland Clinic to develop an iPad app to assess MS progression. 


    more at http://mobihealthnews.com/40031/google-biogen-will-use-wearable-sensors-to-study-multiple-sclerosis/


    Companies should do this more often: experiment with new technologies - cloud, analytics, wearables, etc. - to explore new business opportunities with minimal investments. All technology companies do it yet few in the traditional environments seam to grab the opportunity. Why?

    Interesting new service to manage company passwords. Interesting new way to manage your corporate password for twitter, facebook and other corporate accounts.

    has nothing to do with digital transformation but impacts us all...

    Very much in line with the emerging concepts of systems of record versus systems of engagements (see http://sco.lt/5d1pD7 and http://sco.lt/8Blzhh) this paper presents the impact on IT organizations and processes: the need for 2 different speeds of operation.

    A strong example of the popularity of systems of engagement in the HR sector.


    See also http://sco.lt/5d1pD7

    In the Age of Facebook, organizations must redefine how they think about information management, control, and governance in order to deal with social technologies. In this AIIM White Paper, Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Managing Director, TCG Advisors, examines the fundamental revolution underway in enterprise IT brought about by ubiquitous Internet access, the proliferation of powerful mobile computing devices, and the consumerization of IT.

    This report compares and contrasts existing Systems of Record – those tools, repositories, and systems upon which organizations have built their business processes for the last several decades – with Systems of Engagement. These tools overlay and complement organizations deep investments in systems of record by providing Web-based access, usability across a variety of hardware and software platforms, and cross-organizational collaboration.

    In the report, Moore addresses these important questions:

    • How will the core value chains within our organizations - innovating, designing, procuring, marketing, selling, servicing, and governing - be impacted by social business systems?
    • What are the issues facing end users who wish to better leverage their information management systems to:
      1. improve operating flexibility, and
      2. better engage with customers?
    • What is the path forward for implementing, sustaining, and managing social technologies effectively and responsibly?


    - See more at: http://www.aiim.org/futurehistory#sthash.91g7y0Gn.dpuf

    A very important concept to master by all digital experts, the difference between systems of reference (or of record - SOR) and systems of engagement (SOE).  In a nutshell, SOR is under the control of IT while SOE are under the control of... well it depends. HR, marketing, sales, finance all use systems of engagement in the cloud - salesforce.com and others - but really no single group is accountable. Except maybe the chief digital officer or the chief marketing technologist. Maybe. 

    A guide to help cloud data center operators determine the impact of data loss, and what to do to prepare against it.

    Innovative mapping uses crowdsourcing techniques to identify not only the most efficient route to take but also the most quiet or the most enjoyable? Can this approach also be leveraged in other business applications that are focussed on efficiency?

    Amazing collection of technical blog posts with many useful and reusable solutions and methods.

    For those into eCommerce, this is always a good read. No surprise, big players are in the leader quadrant, with many smaller - especially open source solutions - missing from the study.

    Great options for managing passwords are passwordBox (montreal company just acquired by Intel) or LastPass. 

    if you have kids, have them read this.

    very good overview of ecommerce trends for the coming year.

    a bit surprising after christmas rush no? Maybe related to European January festivites (Orthodox xmas?)

    Tons of data gathered from chief digital officers in the insurance sector.

    Opportunities and challenges for financial institutions and retailers alike.

    A biased review of spree commerce eCommerce open source solution.

    Always good to know what tools others are using. Here's a list.

    Cell phones can now be tracked inside buildings using barometric sensors. Great for 911 calls, it also raises a lot of privacy concerns.

    Full of data about the size of Amazon data centers (Amazon probably has close to 5M servers), the article describes how they are organized and hints at the networking issues they face. Very interesting and insightful.

    Interesting to see the variability in pricing for cloud computing solutions out there. You'd assume the differences would be minimal but they are actually very significant.

    Useful insights.

    How an analysis of 100K+ jawbone users tells us about the impact of weather on exercice. Also a good example of Big Data use.

    This will likely make Apple Pay very popular

    Jump over to the section on Big Data, and you'll get a great description of where Big Data will likely fail on the near future: making predictions. As a good engineer, Jordan states a fact about Big Data that often goes unnoticed: Big Data today is like gambling because it is not based on a formal scientific approach. Rather, he states quite clearly that Big Data today is like building bridges prior to civil engineering: you can build a bridge but cannot GUARANTEE it will not fail. Same with Big Data: we can analyze a lot of data and make predictions but we cannot guarantee they will become reality.


    (or read the entire piece, it will enlighten you on a typical engineering discussion on new technology: dry, cold, fact-based. Much to the opposite of everyday marketing and scientific media interpretation.)

    great insight that shows how much digital permeates every field (pun intended ;-)

    a new buzzword, reverse showrooming....

    I think those questions will have to be answered over the next few years...

    Interesting. Is anyone actually using this?

    A massively online open class (MOOC) will be given early in 2015 to cover many of the topics that are essential to understand during a digital transformation. The title is misleading as it refers to eCommerce, when in fact the core of the class revolves around digital transformation core elements.

    Week 1 - Digital Business Models:
    Week 2 - Digital Products

    Week 3 - Online Consumer Experience:

    Week 4 - Personalization and Targeting:

    Week 5 - Networks and Platforms:

    Week 6 - Intellectual Property Rights:

    I wrote about this here http://sco.lt/75eN0L in the past and now HBR has published this short video to describe how one can leverage the business model canvas and the lean startup principles to explain how nespresso works. I use this all the time when looking at new business ideas and it works great.

    Frank Diana presents some very interesting examples of what a smart city can be and why it represents a major disruption in the future.

    City protocol society proposes a one page view of the interconnexion between structures in a city and multiple cities, offering an opportunity to make all of its information accessible to all its inhabitants.

    Truly inspiring to see that Barcelona has established an "operating system" for the city (city OS) that connects all of the sensors (street lights, parking meters, cameras, etc.) to make their data accessible for different applications and analytics opportunities.


    (in french) eCommerce is picking up speed in Quebec. Les Affaires journal has just released a special issue on the topic, urging retailers to get going with eCommerce. And if you look closely you may find a few quotes from yours truly in some of the articles... ;-)


    Direct link to the PDF : http://bit.ly/1tyT78z 

    The story of J&J digital transformation is similar to much of the strategies I work on. Finding the right balance between global standardization and local autonomy - what I call the "glo-cal equilibrium" - is the most challenging aspect of the work. 


    Then once the global elements are in place - often in the form of shared services and certified vendor lists - all the attention shifts to communication, change management, training, and education. Which is always, always, under-estimated...

    Reverse urbanization, end of parking are some of the ways autonomous cars may change our lives. What would the impact on business be? Continuous delivery, where delivery vans make delivery routes 24-7?Predictive support, where support personnel are dispatched throughout an area where their service may be needed in the future, working in the car in between jobs?Warehouse on wheels, with high velocity items made available for order online and delivery in minutes?Travelling office, where sales team work out of small vans as they travel from one client to the next?

    We know what variable pricing is when we fill our car with gasoline: the price is never the same and varies hour by hour. What triggers that change? Often we don't know. This article gives a good overview of the variable pricing with a striking example for a GE microwave where it tracks the price across amazon, best buy, and sears during a single day, and observes as many as 9 price changes.


    Variable pricing is difficult to implement manually but with digital the opportunities are endless. It requires your costs to be well understood and advance algorithms that make decisions automatically based on parameters you determine (time of day, interest for a product, inventory or prices are competitor's site, etc.). The transformation it requires may be profound, but can deliver amazing results.

    Mon dernier billet en lien avec la conférence du 24 octobre pour introduire un indice de maturité sur le eCommerce.

    Early in the 2000s, Google and other web companies forecasted that people would consume Internet mostly via mobile devices (leading in part to Google investing in Android).


    In 2014, mobile took over desktop for browsing the web (http://cnnmon.ie/1saCX3b). In its state of Internet report (SOTI 1Q14 http://bit.ly/1saE1UI), this Akamai chart shows that people are not buying iPhones and other mobile devices as phone replacements but as desktop replacements. The chart also highlights the importance of ubiquitous mobile network availability, via cellular or wifi.


    But contrary to home or office usage, mobile depends on public networks to give users access to the Internet. For now, private corporations (telcos) have been the only ones providing this essential service. Soon, governments should consider providing the wireless telecommunication networks as part of their infrastructure, in a similar way that they provide roads, sewer and aqueducs.

    We must get used to it: the more digital our lives are, the more cyberattacks will be dangerous for our privacy, security and have impact on businesses. 

    A very detailed and scientific explanation of semiconductors. Explained in straightforwards terms it remains a very technical article, not for the faint at heart. But if you really want to know what's inside your computer, phone, watch, TV, car, etc. then this is a very good overview... ;-)

    Kano was a 1.5M$ kickstarter project that now ships its first 18000 computers. It feels like the modern day version of electronic kits for kids such as the 130-in-1 which I played when I was young and that got my daughter interested in technology when she was young.


    Kano feels like this amazing kit to help kids learn about programming, in what many believe to be an essential skill for the future.


    http://bit.ly/1C7gTZG

    http://amzn.to/1p2cEsD 

    http://onforb.es/1C7gDKv

    http://onforb.es/1p2dNjL


    Another great talk about ways in which personal sensitive information can be extracted from a simple picture of your face, using public data on Facebook and elsewhere. 


    Also read: 

    Why privacy matters- why it is Paramount even if you’re “not doing anything you need to hide" via @TED http://sco.lt/8uDaLJ

    Amazing talk on the reasons why privacy is so important in the digital age. Listen until the end as I find the Q&A during the last 3 minutes may help you to see Snowden as a whistle blower rather than a traitor.


    I was curious and dug the 2005 CNET article about the personal information that CNET has gathered on Eric Schmidt that Greenwald references in his talk.

    http://cnet.co/1vTS5Uh


    This system sounds like the ultimate in control: publicly posting employee attendance online. Made possible by cheap fingerprint scanners and easy to use database reporting. Most interesting because it was introduced in India and deployed in a few months by a team of 2.I can easily see the uproar if this was deployed in Quebec!

    Very proud of the achievement. Thank you all followers and supporters!

    Always good to follow those trends. No surprise.

    Always good to hear how companies do digital transformation. Here it is CIO-led, or appears to be, and focusses on data, data, data and not afraid to integrate cloud based solutions as part of the company ecosystem - here salesforce. Makes sense.

    Il y a tellement eu de choses qui a été initiée, créée, imaginée, sans avoir l’énergie du Politique pour l’enraciner dans nos organisations publiques et privées pour un changement autant économique que social. Il y a eu l’Alliance numérique, des manifestes de plans numériques (Communautique), des regroupements, des acteurs importants (en solo, duo, trio),  les 13 étonnées, l’Institut de gouvernance numérique, des co-working spaces, des maisons (Notman), même une Stratégie culturelle numérique du Québec (mars 2014). Mais plus important encore, des acteurs de divers milieux (artiste, programmeur, consultant, militant, enseignant, chercheur, administrateur, usagers, utilisateur) dans divers lieux et structures organisationnelles classiques et émergentes (ville, organisme communautaire, Living Lab, FabLab, grappes industrielles, startups, etc.) qui ont déjà créé les racines de l’innovation numérique du Québec. Il faut les cultiver pour les faire grandir.

    Feels like Montreal is getting more digital friendly and this review of some of the local projects kind of shows a reassuring trend. Let's hope we continue to promote digital via progressive tax credits. (in french)


    Also see Montreal digital strategy: the 4Cs. http://sco.lt/5z2Qwz 

    This my first original piece on the Digital Transformation of Business blog. I was spurred by an inquiry from the CDO of Ville de Montreal as he looks to shape the job description of the head of customer service. I assume this is also meaningful to other executives looking to enhance or transform their customer service department.


    First I suggest reading a lot on the customer decision journey, as it evolves from the old "funnel" model to the "journey" model, an endless loop centered around the customer.

    - McKinsey describes the Customer Decision Journey very eloquently in this 2009 article. http://bit.ly/Z1Ck1r

    - An article in The Economist may provide an easier to read version (believe it or not!). http://bit.ly/Z1DjPh 

    - McKinsey then shows in 2014 how digital shapes the customer decision journey interactions with customers, an essential component being customer service. http://bit.ly/Z1CuG2

    - Forrester has written extensively on the creation of customer journey maps which I believe are amazing ways to vizualize the new interactions in the digital age. http://bit.ly/Z1HTgi

    - Forrester proposes the 6 Cs of customer centricity which may help guide your initial strategic thinking. http://adobe.ly/Z1IVZC 

    - a pinterest board provides an interesting view of different journey maps. http://bit.ly/Z1Iwq8


    Then a number of firms have written specifically about the customer service in the digital age including:

    - Deloitte which includes mobile first, omni channel, social networks, etc. http://bit.ly/Z1JliP

    - McKinsey about What it takes to digitize customer care http://bit.ly/Z1JOl3

    - Capgemini has a number of papers on digitization of customer experience, part of their wider and well researched digital transformation of businesses http://bit.ly/Z1K1oq

    - Mashable provides simple web-based solutions to self-service customer care, which I assume every VP should understand and put in his master plan http://on.mash.to/Z1Kgj6

    - Accenture has a customer survey that may shed some lights into the needs of customers regarding service they expect form organizations in the digital age http://bit.ly/Z1KqqT


    That being said there are lots of other sources and I welcome in the comments any other references that may be useful.




    Draws attention to the growing number of CDO appointments in large organizations recently. Then again, does not mean that because everyone is doing it everyone is right either. I just penned a paper to be published soon that describes the 3 choices a CEO has when confronted with a digital transformation not going well. Either the CIO or the CMO takes leadership or a new position is created to bridge the gaps and get people to work together: the CDO.


    Not an easy choice to make...

    Montreal appears to be heading in the right digital direction. This is the high level view, in french.

    The 2min video shows how the pickup service works. Very popular in France already with 2500+ locations, the jury is still out to see whether this will work in North America...


    http://sco.lt/7u16nJ

    (in french-glish ;-)

    I just published this presentation given this week to 100 business analysts form the International Institute of Business Analysis (montreal.iiba.org).


    Thank you Jeanne Estelle Thebault, Frederick Wardini, Jose Ramon Vasquez, Yves Nicole, Jean-Marc Roy, Georges Bryson, Lalita Dhunnoo et Benoit Deslauriers for giving me the opportunity to deliver this important message to bridge the gap between EAs and BAs!

    The trend is clear and the growth appears stable at about 16% YoY means sales will double to 200B$ by 2019.

    This is much inline with my readings on the zero marginal cost society. Being able to print your own car may not be practical of cost effective today but once it is and car 3D models are available free or low charge on the web, where will the car industry go? I understand why Tesla is building huge battery manufacturing plant as they may have seen that providing key components may be the future of the car industry?

    Life quantification pioneer Nicholas Felton's latest annual report is his most ambitious to date.

    For the last nine years, Nicholas Felton--who you may know best for inspiring the Facebook timeline or creating the life-logging app Reporter--has been recording some aspect of almost every moment of his life. And each year, he turns this data into a elegant, printed book that visualizes the year called The Feltron Report...

    The Felton report is a beautiful peeping hole into someone's life when they start to quantify themselves. Focussed on fairly benign problem space - conversations during the year - it shows what possibilities, both good and bad, lie within the quantified-self movement which is bound to explode with the availability of Apple watch and others alike.


    Of course it brings tremendous opportunities for monitoring someone's life in order to improve it. Whether it is by measuring exercice (as we do today with step trackers) or heart rate or glucose levels in order to improve health or medical diagnosis. In the context of business, organizations can monitor employees in order to minimize injuries or prevent illness and time loss due to sickness.


    There is of course the dark side, where all this data, when made available without our consent or knowledge, can be used to track us and restrict our privacy or our rights. This is already happening in the contexte of government surveillance (ie. Edward Snowden http://sco.lt/5k4B29) or internet browsing tracking (ie. data brokers http://sco.lt/79yNZh)

    I love Quartz and got this from them. The job posting requires skills using MS Office.


    Preferred Skills

    3. Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and Access.


    Digital is gaining ground in all professions!

    In french. Very good article to demonstrate how industries blind themselves to digital transformation. In this case the professional board of optometrists prevents the sale of prescription glasses online, stating that certain measurements are very specific and must be done by an optometrist. And the regulation was perfect in the age of physical stores, where competitors were across the street or across town.


    With Internet, this rule does not apply anymore. Competitors may be anywhere, in the US, Europe or India. And they are not subject to the same rules. This makes the regulation that was once created to protect the public and level the competitive playing field, is now hurting the local optometrists. And the same is true with other professional boards, pharmacists for example (it is not easy to sell prescription drugs online in Quebec, but very easy to buy prescriptions online from US or elsewhere).


    We need the professional boards to adapt their regulations to the new reality or face falling off the digital cliff.

    A bit long winded for those that follow the topic, this article nevertheless brings forward essential strategic thinking the C-suite executives should ask themselves today. Most important thinking comes at the end, so stick through it.


    Think of banking, which essentially a data-driven business, and ask yourself if their leaders have read papers like this one... Or retailers, which often sit on millions of transaction data from their POS and websites without using it to drive their business decisions. 

    I wrote about exoskeleton earlier this month http://sco.lt/8z0b1l but this invention makes me think of them in a whole new light where they not only decouple your forces but also allow you to stay still for a long time. Here they claim the skeleton can keep its position for 24 hours on a 6V battery.


    Nice overview of discrepancies between web analytics data, this paper raises a very important issue when thinking about data, business intelligence and Big Data: multiple sources of data often requires a very strict data quality management process in order to interpret the data meaningfully. This paper provides a very good example of it. Thank you Mihnea.

    In french, this study shows how far behind the medical profession is in Canada - from a digital standpoint. The study mentions benefits of online appointments. Then ask yourself if your doctor, your dentist, your garage, and all the other professionals that you visit on a regular basis provide online appointments.


    So much to do....

    Most overused these days, omni-channel is often a concept that is difficult to understand. This paper sheds some lights onto the concept as well as provides very useful concrete examples that describe how companies put omni-channel through its paces. 


    Moreover, the paper delivers the concept with a focus on data, which indeed appears to be the glue that ties omni-channel together very well. Even though the focus is on retail, I believe this may also apply to banks and other physical locations where customers interact with businesses.

    Finally the media seems to have shifted their attention from personal wearables to business-led applications of those wearables - except for yesterday's coverage of Apple iWatch. 


    This article raises a good question : will you bring you wearable to work - your NFC smartphone can replace you company badge (or badges in case of consultant like me) - or will corporation issue you a company approved Google Glass or some other device? Anyone considering the introduction of wearable technology should consider this point carefully.


    Say you want to introduce Google Glasses for all your field service employees so that they have access to the repair manuals and seamless hands-free communication to head-office experts for on-site support. Or you want to introduce an in-store order picking Glass solution to improve your eCommerce efficiency. Or maybe you have a use case for employee heart rate monitoring that drives a business case to reduce your insurance premiums. Short-term benefits will require you provide company issued devices - no one will buy a 1500$ Google glass today.


    But in the mid-term, 2 or 3 years down the road, similar or competing devices may start to appear on the consumer market. Will you design your original solution to support BYOD or mandate the use of company devices, at the risk of alienating your employees with sub-par devices or multiple devices that are incompatible with one another?


    Think about it, define a strategy and set a clear path towards it.

    Digital transformation often means moving from an analog process to a digital one - think going from pen &paper to using a tablet to take notes during a meeting. The importance of having access to a power source when batteries are drained becomes essential to make digital transformation possible. This is why this technology is so important. It appears that solar cells evolution is faster than battery storage evolution (although it is an intuition not data backed ). Here being able to print low cost solar cells that can easily be incorporated in the things we wear or carry may provide some much needed alternate source of power that continues to fuel the digital transformations!
    Wow, must read piece if you want to understand Apple's PR machine. In the context of the upcoming sept 9 event this will help you put the hype into perspective. You will also gain respect for this reporter which will, no doubt, suffer consequences for stating what appears to be obvious tactics used to control the media and the message.Do not read if you don't want to know how the sausage is made because of fear you won't be able to eat sausage again in the future. But in the digital transformation world, you must read this piece as it raises an essential point: when you innovate - as is often the case when pushing for digital transformations - you need to control the message that you sent to your customers and competitors. And Apple, here also, think different...

    2 min video that will make you smile. IKEA has done a great job to show how much ground digital technologies have to cover to replace pen-and-paper. Funny.

    This article confirms 2 things:


    1- delivery is an essential component of eCommerce success but it is very difficult to execute. It requires expertise, is capital intensive and takes time to build out. Leveraging an existing service that is looking for ways to improve its balance sheet means USPS may be more flexible to accommodate Amazon than it was a few years ago.. 


    2- Amazon for now favours improving its delivery service - lower cost, faster turnaround - over opening physical stores. Makes perfect sense for Amazon: cracking the low-cost same-day delivery code is much more effective than opening stores (that requires real estate, employees, inventory, etc.) because it fits with Amazon online retailer pure play model. However, we can expect to see Amazon showrooms open in the future.


    Also see

    - Wall Street Journal article

    - other blog posts I've written about Amazon Fresh

    Just realized that I never got around to sharing this most important paper from McKinsey. It is important for anyone concerned with digital transformation because it highlights how digital transforms the way we do things, not just how we do things. 


    For example, eCommerce has not only made catalog ordering faster by providing us with a browser on the Internet as opposed to a paper ordering form that must be mailed or faxed in to the retailer office. eCommerce has transformed the way we purchase digital goods such as music and travel, allowing social integration with reviews, comments and suggestions.


    McKinsey highlights here how different the process is and moving us away from the funnel metaphor to a never-ending loop that, if all goes well, builds on itself and grows.


    Part of the essential reads one must make to understand digital transformation.


    Also read:

    Interactive tool from Google provides insight into “The Customer Journey to Online Purchase" via @google http://sco.lt/4s8QVd


    These rules also apply to IT management and related projects. We often get bogged down into details and short term bugs and production issues with little time to think and really define and control strategic decisions. I find these techniques apply very well during digital transformations.

    Great mashup (no one says that anymore I know) of maps + traffic data + travel algorithms. 

    Jump to the end to see a very convincing 3min video on use of Glass in the pipeline industry. I've been saying this for a while: can Google glass actually bring more value in a business setting? I think so and so does a growing number of people and corporations. 


    Also read:

    - Google Glass will be more successful among enterprise customers in the short term via @forrester @jp_gownder http://sco.lt/7YYLQ1

    - Marc Andreessen Describes How Google Glass Will Revolutionize Health Care via @bloomberg http://sco.lt/5vFe6b

    - Glass Collective provide VC funding innovation to find the Google Glass "killer app"? http://sco.lt/7YPDrl

    - and more 

    http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=google+glass


    6 key technology trends, explained to business managers by accenture.

    Useful reference when creating marketing organization charts. Helps identify roles, responsibilities and titles.

    Stil wondering what Big Data is all about? Well here is a good example, coming straight from Google. It shows the kind of analysis one can perform when looking at millions of google searches focussed around the house hunting theme.


    It can be a good indicator of market interest - and sometimes even provide early indicators as is the case with flu trends can be predicted by Google earlier than the CDC with as much precision.


    The data can also be used to analyze differences in behaviour between age groups, regions, and other criteria. This is only possible because of the large dataset as it provides sufficient data to see meaningful patterns emerge. It can even show correlations that may be meaningful in related fields, here between real estate and interior design.


    Also worth reading to understand the power of BigData:

    - jawbone insight into recent earthquake: How did the Napa earthquake affect sleep? http://sco.lt/5S733Z

    Bedtime Stories: Learning from Sleep Data- from #jawbone #StrataConf 2014 via @mrogati http://sco.lt/98dV8D

    - google flu trends http://sco.lt/5x6g4n


    A very good story that reveals some new information about what Snowden knows and has done. Very informative and well written.

    Data from wearable technologies can be mined in many different ways, here indicating the impact of an earthquake based on distance from epicenter. Wearables are starting to provide insights into phenomenons that they may not have been designed to do, and this is just the beginning. Similar to a story earlier this year from jawbone as well.


    Bedtime Stories: Learning from Sleep Data- from #jawbone #StrataConf 2014 via @mrogati http://sco.lt/98dV8D


    Very strong overview of digital retail innovations. The presentation is peppered with youTube videos of presentations that are, for the most part, informative and easy to listen to.

    Interesting that cyber attacks are not a monopoly of USA, China and Russia, although they share similar features with the USA PRISM program and Israeli Flame and Stuxnet virus.


    The Best Explanation Yet Of How The NSA's PRISM Surveillance Program Works http://sco.lt/8rWyDx


    A world where everything is hackable via @Strata @acroll http://sco.lt/8pX85p


    A very well researched overview of the data privacy issues that we face online. The report exposes in very simple terms how your personal information is being collected as you browse the Internet.


    More on this topic here

    http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Privacy


    And also a specific post I wrote a while back on the tool featured during the interview:

    What is behavioural tracking? @gary_kovacs explains in 9min video: Tracking our online trackers via @TED #mustsee http://sco.lt/6nVELB


    A most important story for anyone interested with digital disruption and transformation it has on business and life. I am particularly interested in those books that explore the extremes of the spectrum, in this case "what did people do before the Internet". Questions like these, I find, help me better understand what we should do, today, when in the middle of a digital transformation.


    Other than the book "The Shallows" I recommend the following read as well:


    - What are the implications of near zero marginal energy costs to my business or Industry? via @franckDiana http://sco.lt/6oeWHJ

    - Atos "No Email" Initiative Provides Valuable Lessons on Driving Big Change Through Social Collaboration http://gtnr.it/1l8GqPD


    Weird concept (see my other posts on same day delivery). But with the right kind of SKUs and proper relationship with retailers (they prepare the orders and the Uber driver delivers during slow periods of the day), it may make sense. The trial may help figure this out. But is grocery the right SKU to target first? Shouldn't pharmacy, HABA, alcohol, make more sense?


    See also:

    - A review of same-day delivery by Google, Amazon, Instacart fails to show how it makes money via @delray http://sco.lt/7Z6OLx

    - Amazon’s now shipping on Sundays - will rescue US Postal Service + disrupt shipping industry? via @washingtonpost http://sco.lt/8g1601

    - Same-Day Delivery not important, next-day delivery/pickup may be traditional retailer edge via @stratandbiz http://sco.lt/4wpmQT

    and others on same-day delivery

    http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=same+day+delivery 

    Nice to hear a different viewpoint, especially when it is well argumented. The post fails to convince me however that eCommerce profitability is lower but it raises some valid points regarding omni-channel. Case in point: Apple has strong stores and a very good eCommerce engine. It can work in certain instances.

    This study puts numbers to facts we already knew: businesses buy online but have yet to sell online. What a shame.


    Also a good summary piece in La Presse+ this morning, with some good charts (in french).

    http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/a869fd37-41ef-42a6-a38e-b64d95b1cd7d%7C_0.html

    Has nothing to do with digital transformation but with recent plane crashes and vacation around the corner, always a good data point to have...

    This article has some interesting data about the size of some e-grocers (Peapod = 550M$, FreshDirect = 25000 orders per week). It claims that the return of the milkman routes, delivering pre-defined orders weekly to its customers, will provide a business model that makes the e-grocery business realistic and profitable. I mostly agree.


    Grocery is a regular (weekly, bi-weekly) shopping experience for most households, with repeatable products, brands and quantities. It is not an impulse buying experience, at least not for the staple products that fill our pantries and most of our fridge. For the rest, go to the store and hand-pick your vegetables, fruits, meat and bakery for that special Saturday night meal.


    At some point, one retailer will figure it out and make replenishment of staple products its core e-grocery offering, blowing all its competitors out of the market. Winder farms does bring an interesting spin to the e-grocery experience but Amazon Fresh appears to be the only company to have truly cracked the model at scale (ie. with many thousands of SKUs delivered on a membership with price cuts on replenishment orders).

    Very interesting but how many companies actually invest in eye tracking studies... or leverage the knowledge that it brings?


    Also worth reading

    - Optimize Content Access by Leveraging Data Emerging from Eye Tracking Studies http://sco.lt/5BwTL7

    - See Your Website with the Eyes of a First-Time Visitor: Peek http://sco.lt/7iskiH


    I learned today in LaPresse+ that Associated Press now relies on software from Automated Insight to write its financial stories on corporate earnings. Stories are, for now, human verified before release but this soon will disappear.

    Also of interest is that AI provides solutions to automate redaction of texts in multiple domains, from sports to website analytics (my picture above). I initially assumed this is along the same lines as the automated writing that the weather service has been using for years. But in fact it is not, as it appears to spit out text that appears to be written by a human, not by a machine. It draws from Big Data analysis to extract meaningful information that it then writes about. The AI website provides few examples that appear very "professional".


    AI now advertises a "marketing" tool that specializes in the creation of marketing material. I assume this will mean more personalized "emails" in my inbox that will go beyond greeting me by name and also merge data that is global (the lettuce is on special this week) to the very personal (you should consider buying more fruits and vegetables and to encourage you we extend a 25% discount for the next 30 days on all our fresh produce section).


    Whether this is good news or bad, I'll let you decide...

    Great overview of the book title The Zero Marginal Cost Society, which will most likely find its way into my vacation reading list...

    no explanation required here.

    10$/month for 600k books, sounds like a good deal to me, a way to bypass and even maybe make the local library useless. But wait, I already have a netflix subscription for videos, google drive for files and documents, videotron for cable tv. And many more to come in the future. When will this end?


    Surely I won't be able to subscribe to all these different subscriptions! What will I do? Or more precisely, what offer would make sense? Will there be a "generic" content subscription that will allow me, say for 20$ or 40$ per month to have access to multiple sources of content, from movies to books to documents to tv programme. A global content aggregator - not Apple nor Amazon nor Yahoo as I assume these guys will certainly offer it at a discount - that will provide content. Just digital content, aggregated across all the many providers. Kind of like a telecom provider that will manage my "content roaming", allowing me to pay "content roaming charges" when access content that is not part of their library.

    Nice list of mostly local eCommerce online boutiques in Quebec and Canada.

    This is an amazing guide to help determine where to perform digital transformation in an organization. Extracted from a larger report by Capgemini-MIT, this model helps frame the discussion to determine where in an organization the digital transformation will have the biggest impact.


    Also read:

    - References for Digital Transformation http://sco.lt/5XWcqn

    - Companies that embrace "digital" are 26% more profitable, and +12% market valuation via @capgemini http://sco.lt/4wa7ZB

    CEOs need a digital vision & 100% digital value chain from sourcing to sales support via @Accenture http://sco.lt/9I4XU9

    - Digital tools can help manufacturing companies cut costs by 30% and bring additional benefits via @capgemini http://sco.lt/8hjspt

    - Digitizing Banking Back Office = 30% cost savings but requires people-process-tech-business combo via @capgemini http://sco.lt/8hqTs9

    - Consulting Digital Transformation Review No. 5- UPS, ABB and others via @Capgemini http://sco.lt/6L8Rn7

    - Digital Transformation: A Road-Map for Billion-Dollar Organizations via @capgemini @mit http://sco.lt/8WQYnR
    - Accelerating Digital Transformation: Understanding and Setting Up a Digital Services Unit via @AlanOnFS http://sco.lt/5x0e8H


    Strangely I never wrote about this but it certainly is worth a mention because Google has now made very strong moves towards "atoms and not bits" as Sergei Brin put it a few days ago, stating that Google has invested in search (bits) for a long time and is now complementing its focus to physical devices (atoms) such as the self driving car or here the contact lens.


    This story is of particular importance as it shows that Google is not in the business of making contact lenses (or cars) but providing the R&D to disrupt industries that are not making the radical shifts they can by using digital technology.


    Also consider:.

    [INFOGRAPHIC] The Existing Wearable Technology Landscape via @WearableWorld http://sco.lt/7pTHPN

    An amazing 10 minute video that highlights all the key elements to demonstrate that we are at the beginning of a major digital transformation. With parallels from the electricity revolution in the 1900s, where it took 30 years for productivity to improve, Erik shows why we are facing a similar path with computers.


    It fails, unfortunately, to show what the future may look like or offer suggestions that highlight what may come next. A great talk nevertheless.

    This remains a must read to keep on top of new development tools, platforms, techniques and frameworks.

    fiksu indexes detail the cost per app across iOS and Android, providing benchmark when budgeting the cost to deploy and promote mobile apps. Gone are the days when just publishing an app meant it was going to get installed. And the costs are significant.

    Similar and with some overlap with 

    150 slides in 25 min #mustwatch video of @kpcb's Mary Meeker performing her Internet trends talk live at #codecon http://sco.lt/6OE7UX

    This review of same-day delivery shopping solutions from Google and Amazon sheds light into the rationale for Google to enter this new market offering.


    However, it fails to answer a fundamental business model question: how can you make money selling products from  store shelves, especially when competing with those from Amazon's warehouses? 

    This chart demonstrates that you have 86x more reach if you pay Facebook to promote your content, but only if that content generates interactions - likes, comments, shares, etc.

    For detailed infographics containing key numbers see the online PDF from FEVAD (in french). It basically confirms what we know already: eCommerce is growing and it affects all products and services. 

    Intermediate/ Digest...


    Tomorrow Adobe is announcing new features that will enable marketers to react immediately to customer or prospect actions, an app store to make integrating with hundreds of new marketing technologies simple and fast, and more, including a new Media Optimizer that, it says, improves search ad effectiveness by 25 percent.

     

    Adobe is also adding an app-store like exchange as a new core service to its marketing cloud, which it just significantly updated in March. The Exchange had been in beta and is now generally available as a core service across all marketing cloud components.

     

    Media Optimizer consists of predictive modeling algorithms that use big data to predict campaign performance, campaign analysis via Adobe Analytics, remarketing capability, the new real-time campaign management features, and a new retail advertising optimization tool.

     

    From ChiefMarTec:

    They’re launching with more than 150 apps in their exchange, which has apparently already been leveraged by more than 1,200 major brand customers worldwide in an extensive beta program.

     

    This is not a we do everything you would ever want in digital marketing position. This is a position that acknowledges that third-party innovation is a critical part of digital marketing — that a 1,000 innovators of marketing technology can be an incredible source of strength. This is a we can be the foundation of everything you would ever want in digital marketing position.

     

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    Receive a FREE daily summary of The Marketing Technology Alert directly to your inbox. To subscribe, please go to http://ineomarketing.com/About_The_MAR_Sub.html  (your privacy is protected).


    A good article that features 5 marketing technologists in different organizations. It helps understand why and what a chief mar tech does but may not answer all the questions one can raise about why we need one in marketing only and why the CIO does not fill the gap. Good read nevertheless.

    Not sure if these numbers track here in Canada or in Montreal but the fact the role has become a line item  says much about the role and the opportunity within organization to better structure technology within the marketing department.


    But it also raises questions: why not a chief HR technologist, chief Sales technologist, etc.? Does every dept merit its own chief technologist? Why does marketing need one and the others don't? If there is already a chief digital officer, do you need a CMT as well? When you name a CMT, does this mean the CIO is not doing his job?

    Another great reference where you'll learn - as I did - about intercom, mention, riffle and other tools to manage an online community.

    The trend appears to be that IT groups are too difficult to change and that the only way to transform them is going around them: employees bypass IT group and do it themselves (shadow IT), CMOs that outspend CIOs in digital technologies, Walmart that creates a "lab" because it is too difficult to change the culture and compete with Amazon, MetLife that uses mongoDB to consolidate over 80 digital systems into a single database to provide customer service reps with 360 degree view of client, etc. 


    Here McKinsey suggest ways in which IT can change. But the solution appears a bit ridiculous: create a parallel team that operates at "digital speed". Sounds like a workaround not a solution, no?


    Other interesting reads:

    1- How CIOs Can Change the Game http://sco.lt/...

    2- shadow-IT: 80% of employees go around the IT department & buy cloud software via @ Emergent007 http://sco.lt/...

    3- Retailers open "labs" to safely pilot their digital transformation via @mercuryNews http://sco.lt/...

    4- Comment MetLife a résolu un problème vieux de huit ans en trois mois via @fmheir http://sco.lt/...

    A blog post I wrote that describes how new databases help solve MetLife customer 360 view problems.

    I've updated my reference list to include McKinsey Digital Edge. The fact that McKinsey now dedicates a micro-site to the digital transformation is testimony to the great impact that digital has on the corporation management team. And often their inability to know what to do about it.

    When Amazon goes into grocery eCommerce and charges 299$ per year for Prime, what will be the impact on traditional retailers - Walmart, Target, Loblaws?

    Digest...


    On June 10, Salesforce.com announced Salesforce Wear, a bundle of free tools and reference applications aimed at evangelizing the power of enterprise wearables. The offering supports six different wearable devices, each with its own open-source reference application to help developers design and build wearable apps that connect to the Salesforce1 platform.

    -- >  Salesforce Wear has the potential to turbo-charge the growing market for enterprise wearables.

    -- >  Some of the reference applications are pure enterprise/B2B workforce enablement applications which can be generalized to other field service scenarios

    -- >  Others reference apps offer solutioning for B2B2C scenarios – which Forrester has been covering extensively in our wearables research.

    -- >  Salesforce Wear will offer enterprises a quicker path to creating different types of user scenarios.

    -- >  In addition to I&O pros, other tech vendors should take note, too.

    -- >  Salesforce’s move into this space both validates the enterprise wearables market and will spur it forward even more quickly.

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    This may feel a bit too much like Big Brother for some, but with the right kind of incentives, this may hold some promise. I can also envision large conferences where identifications can be moved from badges to wearable devices. Interesting that Salesforce is capturing this market first.

    Very appropriate insight regarding this new technology. The video in this article shows a field repair scenario but I can also see applications in more mundane parcel delivery, order management, or customer service, where being able to recognize an address or a face can be extremely powerful.

    Over 4000 one page websites are referenced here. I came across the Swiss airline website and found it very beautiful. But there are tons of others. Probably due to the iPad - where scrolling up down is preferable to having multiple tabs or pages - the one page design has the distinct advantage to constrain designers - and their clients - into finding the most important stuff and featuring it simply and elegantly.


    Enjoy.

    A bit of dogfooding here, a one page reference for website one pager. Anything from header to footer including pricing tables and portfolio pages. Great to drop into a presentation or prototype as the designer suggest, it is also good to help people think in one pagers.

    The article conclusion says it all:


    "One survey, by Gartner, predicted that by 2015, 35% of the money companies spend on IT will be spent by employees who don't even work for the IT department. And PricewaterhouseCoopers found that at companies it rated as "top performers," more than 50% of IT spending was already happening outside the IT department. This suggests that firms concerned about the security issues of shadow IT are missing the point; the bigger risk is not embracing it in the first place."

    I agree that social commerce is a big question mark but this review of existing - and in some cases very recent - solutions is most appropriate (in french)

    some very useful charts and diagrams in the presentation. The rest is pretty straightforward...

    I am wondering this has not been a bigger news event. When I was studying programming in the 80s - about the same time when Blade Runner movie referenced here came  out - beating the Turing test was a big deal and the holy grail of computer science. Now that it has been beating I would have expected it to be big news.


    Implications for digital transformation are potentially huge but I guess 2 technologies make the result less newsworthy:

    1- we have seen IBM Watson computer win Jeopardy contest a few years ago, proving that human-like behaviour is possible and successful;

    2- Google voice recognition and to a smaller extent Apple siri have made voice recognition and text understanding available to the masses - although with varying levels of success


    This does not however and reduce the potential impact that passing theTuring test will have over business digital projects.One should plan to include systems that interact with users - at least in very controlled environment - a key component for solutions such as diagnostics reporting, information querying and guidance systems.

    Great IT research paper on BYOD , with statistics on adoption and recommendations on how to implement it.

    As Mary Meeker says in her intro, this presentation probably violates all rules that communication experts drill into our heads, yet it is very effective because

    1- the slides are made available for us to review after

    2- we can pause and rewind

    3- she stresses what's important: the rest we get by looking at the slides


    Love it.

    I find this story - along with the others on salaries and revenues - an amazing insight into openness and a great yard stick to evaluate opportunities I have or the consulting work that I do. Must read IMHO.

    Detailed story behind the skype translator solution that Microsoft just demoed. Full of insights it is not a technical paper however. Nor does it bring insight on how this technology can be used but in business settings, this will be a revolution. In canada and Quebec in particular, many meetings are held in english because a single person does not speak french. This tech would remove this common denominator requirement.


    As with anything, this may be more appropriate initially for informal conversation than detailed, highly technical and specialized topics, which is the case in most business settings. So I assume this to be a nice ice breaker but not a real solution in business in the near term.


    Nevertheless, any strategic plan that looks beyond the 3-5 year horizon should definitely assume this will become viable, whether it is from Microsoft, Google or others.

    Google has done it: a true self-driving car. Not a production car that they retrofitted with technology but one designed and built from scratch. Wow. See the video, impressive - even though the design is questionable the technology is overwhelming.


    This really make a huge leap to demonstrate what future transportation systems may be like. Think of a mini office or entertainment on wheels. Kind of like a train or a plane, you become a passenger.


    Businesses should look at this carefully as it paves the way for revolution in the supply chain - non wonder this comes out of military projects looking to make the supply of armies more efficient and less costly. When will we see a retailer - a grocer for example - embrace this technology to deliver groceries at your door? Amazon?

    Additional insights into the trends.


    To download the actual slides, go here:

    KPCB Internet trends 2014 via @KPCB http://sco.lt/621suH

    The slides for yearly Internet trends reference.

    Very useful insight on how we perceive detail using peripheral vision. Useful for my friends that are ux designers.

    I had to forward this one as I never expected digital transformation would be so disruptive to organizations! ;-)

    Since digital transformation often means coding software, I thought I would bring back this oldie as it remains as true today as it was then.

    Fairly detailed list of wearable devices from watches to smart bands, through glasses, clothing and even jewelry.

    How do you get more sales and repeat customers for your ecommerce business?

    That’s the number one question most online store owners want answered. Most of the time, it comes down to making small improvements and optimizations to your site over time.

    But where do you start? 

    To give you some ideas and inspiration, we decided to take a look at Harry's, a 12-month old ecommerce business powered by $122.5M in venture capital funding. Harry's sells razors and grooming products for men and was founded by Jeffrey Raider and Andy Katz-Mayfield. Raider was one of the cofounders behind Warby Parker, the popular ecommerce service for eyeglasses founded in 2010 and currently rumored to be valued at around $500 million.

    Surely with all that money and experience they must be doing something right.

    Let's find out :)

    breakdown of major components of a website that sell.

    According to authors Tadhg Nagle and Dave Sammon, one of the most striking results of our Agile Data Analytics survey highlights "the ever-present dependence of organizations on spreadsheets as a data analytics tool, with just under 95% having varying degrees of spreadsheet deployment and 36% having near-to-full/widespread implementation." This indicates that "spreadsheets are significantly overutilized in comparison to newer and more error-resilient technologies. This won't come as much of a surprise to most, and while it highlights a definite need for enterprise data solutions, it also indicates a significant gap between the data products trending in industry discourse and the reality of how comfortable organizations are with these products. This is an interesting challenge, and although organizations must carry the bulk of the responsibility of overcoming it, vendors need to play their part as well."

    Simple chart that proves what I've been seeing in organizations large and small: excel rules analytics. It is simple to use, relatively powerful, un-intimidating for users, usable without technical help or IT involvement. 


    It is also dangerous, because the analysis performed are often used to create new information - such as sales forecast for example - which then are distributed using excel spreadsheets and not via proper enterprise-controlled databases. This leads to data duplication and multiple versions of the truth. 


    I try to help my clients to better use Excel and leverage its power to create data that go back into an enterprise database. simple to conceive, very difficult to implement and to enforce. Unfortunately.

    New MEME: fog computing. The idea that cloud computing requires very fast (and low latency) networks to deliver useful processing in real-time. But even high-speed Internet is not fast enough in most cases, cellular networks are even worse. This is where fog computing comes in: push computing to the edge f the network, in routers and devices that are close to the user devices and let them perform some of the work. Great idea, kind of like the Content Delivery Networks that Akamai and others have built over the years.


    That being said, this does not appear to be a revolution but a minor evolution  in the cloud computing era.

     NoSQL database market is expected to grow at a rate three times faster than that of the SQL market during the next few years, understandably making newcomers to big data technology eager to understand why and how it fits into their organizations. The needs for speed, scale, continuous availability, location independence, ability to manage all types of data, and cost reduction are driving this increasing adoption. Barriers to adoption have certainly existed, from the technical to the non-technical, and it’s important to examine those along with improvements that have developed in the NoSQL ecosystem. Furthermore, use cases are gaining speed as important indicators of when and how organization should use NoSQL technologies. This paper examines these topics and provides practical implementation strategy tips, including a selection checklist and migration pointers.

    A good primer on NoSQL. Worth noting, the heat map from Gartner that shows big data opportunities by industry. Banking, government and manufacturing are big data hot beds.


    Also see, in french

    Blogue Direction Informatique - Comment MetLife a résolu un problème vieux de huit ans en trois mois http://myi.tw/1kCw74w  un billet de Farid Mheir @fmheir

    Spying, just like in the movies! 

    Also see

    United States of Secrets- #mustWatch via @FRONTLINE http://sco.lt/6kuPfV

    I watched episode #1, can't wait to see episode #2. Must watch, very good summary of all things in digital spying since 9/11.

    All about what connected consumers can expect from their cars, now and in the future: information, choices, communication.

    This chart from Statista adds context to the debate around net neutrality. It shows what happened when Netflix paid for direct access to Comcast. The speed took off.

    Now, imagine this across the board for many other companies. They'll be stuck at a slower speed unless they're willing to pay for a speed boost. Those costs will end up being passed on to you by the companies paying for access to the high speed lane. 



    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-when-netflix-paid-for-direct-access-to-comcast-2014-5#ixzz31uk5IzPp

    Many wonder what the "net neutrality" is all about and what the big deal is. This chart says it all, along with the comment by Jay. We have been blessed with uniform access no matter who we are (OK you have to pay to get high speed Internet access over dialup) but once you do, there is no limit.

    Detailed comparison of landing page development tools, including one from Montreal, unbounce. Members of the mtl+ecommerce group get 50% off!

    So very impressive, the concept is absolutely terrific and the execution very creative. Hexagonal solar panel tiles generate electricity, melt snow (I want this for my driveway!), emit light, and communicate with one another and cars above. It does not seem cost efficient for roadways until the price drops by 2 orders of magnitude. Until then, niche applications such as parking lots appear interesting. Take time to listen to the videos, they are great.

    Must read short article with great insights on how Canadian Tire bets digital using and internal team and 10 "secret" digital projects. Looking forward to the next few months to see what they are about.

    Yes, makes perfect sense: is there a difference between B2C and B2B? I guess the answer is "not so much".

    Very detailed review of the potential for iBeacons for brands, technology providers and retailers. A must read if you are wondering how iBeacons could be used in your stores.

    Good to know: long pages for home pages and places where user not sure what he is looking for, short pages when action is clear.

    I often wonder why we in the digital world are so keen on this concept of "fail forward fast", the idea that mistakes are great source of inspiration and should be embraced. Why do digital natives think this is so important?


    First, digital transformations often require a great deal of creativity as we have new tools in our hand that mandate taking a different look at the way things are done. No wonder we call what we do a transformation, not just a digital update or digital enablement. Our digital tools allow us the ability to do things differently. Take eCommerce for example. Of course we can create catalogs and carts that replicate the paper and physical 4-wheel caddy we push in store aisle - and many have done so. Taking a different look enabled Amazon for example to get rid of the physical stores all together (leading to massive economies), and giving way to showrooming mobile applications and automatic replenishment which are shaking the traditional retailers.


    Second, our digital mistakes are often easy to fix and rarely lead to catastrophic failures - such as death in the case of engineering mistakes. Our mistakes often only lead to on screen error messages or the need to reboot our computers. We can even simulate real-world environments in the case where death is a possibility - think medical devices.


    So our digital expert minds are wired to explore the world and think of our solutions not as mere digital copies of those in the real world, but rather as tickets to explore whole new ways of doing things. 


    This is why readings such as this one are so important.


    Now go read the book - as I will soon do.

    A good overview of all the connected devices that we have now and what the future may bring. Unfortunately, focus is on consumer devices. I would have liked to find a similar study for business-related devices. Do you know any?

    A great example of digital transformation using 3d printers.

    No surprise in this announce by Loblaws


    2 things worth highlighting, which represent clear result of the digital transformation of Loblaws:

    • “We think that represents a very significant potential strategic advantage for us ultimately.”. Turning eCommerce into a digital advantage means other grocers - IGA, metro - are not there and will not be there
    • “I’d like to encourage you to imagine a world where fresh fruits and vegetables outsell packaged groceries in our stores,” he told shareholders. I've been saying that for years now: the middle of grocery stores (where canned goods are sold) will disappear in favor of online ordering. People thus will go to the store to hand pick perishables. So of course they will outsell packaged goods. Prediction: I also envision that stores will sell training (think recipes, tastings, etc.) and support (personalized help to managed your weight or deal with some intolerance (nuts, gluten, etc.)


    Am I completely out here? Then why are IGA and metro not following Loblaws here?

    I have not seen the 60minutes report but this post raises an important question for anyone interested in digital transformation: how to future-proof your solutions?


    It is of great importance. Will my data be readable 40 years from now? If so how? Will cloud computing and SaaS provide a solution, migrating and evolving the data over time as the application changes.

    One more sign that retail store transformation is under way and will move from anecdotal to full scale in the next months. With Walmart scale and size of its stores it is not difficult to see them convert part of their existing facilities to host drive-thru area in the back. This way you can order staples (or even benefit from automatic replenishment), then go in store to top-off what you may have missed or want to pick yourself (essential in grocery).

    Nothing earth shattering here but good to use as a starting point. I must say I find most of my stuff in google image search, then again I should often widen my net...

    Useful list to check if you are using Google apps or Google drive often

    5 minute read, it summarizes the key findings from eye tracking studies. No surprises (above the fold, big chunks, etc.) but it is nice to see all this in a single article. Annoying popup ads, just dismiss them to get to the post.

    Security and privacy concerns are top of mind for corporations and individuals looking to move their data to the cloud. This very technical story provides some insights into what may be offered in the future: fully encrypted data, as soon as it leaves the browser, with minimal overhead. Let's hope we can see this in commercial offerings soon.

    The idea of providing insights into a cities data store is essential. This is just one way to make it available to people without smartphones.

    This study by Accenture, Hybris and Forrester shows very interesting insights into the discrepancies between what customers expect from eCommerce and what retailers offer.

    Whenever we see a self-driving car, we're always nervous that it won't see us and steamroller us straight into the tarmac. It's a fear that Google is trying to quell with its latest video, revealing that the vehicles are constantly tweaked to better understand and navigate the obstacles of California. In the clip we learn that the cars can now spot a cyclist's arm-waving, and will wait until they've passed before moving along. The rides can also now spot pedestrians from behind, will slow for on-road construction and won't enter a railroad crossing until the exit is clear.

    Not much in the post other than a great 2 minutes video that shows how much a self-driving car has to manage in real-time to be safe on the road. and very amazing that it does what it does already. To old (!) folks like me, this is very Dick Tracy-esque!

    Read if you want to know more about the new blackphone and the encryption behind it.

    Amazon Prime members can now have big boxes filled with regular-sized household items delivered at a flat rate.


    As the big-box retailer of the online world, it's no surprise that Amazon sees a future in big boxes.

    This week, Amazon launched Prime Pantry, a delivery service that allows customers to fill up a single box of non-perishable household goods and have it shipped to them at a flat rate.


    In a dig at stores like Costco and Walmart, where customers save by buying in bulk, Pantry users will be able to purchase items like cereal, canned soup, pet food, paper towels and detergent in "everyday sizes," but save by having them shipped in bulk.


    Customers can order up to 45 pounds of items, but each box, no matter the size of the shipment (it shows the percentage being filled in the shopping cart), will be delivered for $5.99.  

    The service is only available to Amazon Prime subscribers, but the flat rate comes on top of the annual $99 membership fee (up from $79 as of April 17).

    While Pantry delivers to customers in the contiguous U.S. (not Hawaii or Alaska), the company's other offering in the grocery space, same day service AmazonFresh is currently accessible in three West Coast markets – Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. 

    More signs that Amazon is targeting established retailers where it hurst: repeat business of staple products. you know, the stuff in the middle of the store, on shelves, where there is little value in picking the product yourself - a can is a can.


    Amazon will suck the air out of retailers for these products as its cost structure is much less than that of a retailer - no staff, low cost warehouses, high automation, no need to ship/unwrap/stock shelves. Of course there are the shipping cost and the returns but Amazon is addressing those as well.


    Related article: Amazon Is Now Accepting Returns Through its Lockers

    What can established retailers do? Roll over and let Amazon do what it wants. So far, that looks pretty much like it...


    Also read:

    1. Amazon Pantry to take on Costco- makes perfect sense in the big picture for Amazon via @usatoday http://sco.lt/6tuRY9
    2. Online Sales is transforming the supermarket store design: center of store will slowly disappear via @nrf @booz http://sco.lt/9AWJeb 

    mobile is important.

    A great summary of this year's Customer Experience Index By Forrester. It helps assess how good you are at keeping your customers happy.

    It was clear when amazon started rolling out Amazon Fresh.


    See this post from Jan 2013:

    AmazonFresh set to expand? http://sco.lt/59o9Td


    and others on same-day delivery

    http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=same+day+delivery


    Last week was held in Montreal the ecommerce conference eComMtl. Here are a summary of the best tweets for the day, mostly in french, as I MC'ed one of the conference rooms (Quebec by Optimal Payments). Many tweets have pictures of slides.


    • I'm at Salon eCom Montréal (1001 Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, Palais des Congrès, Montréal) http://4sq.com/1ftuQGU 
    • Horaire de la track Québec inc. présentée par @OptimalPayments et animée par @fmheir pic.twitter.com/ytFiEodSnu

    Case Study: le Naturiste

    • 75% des consommateurs de produits naturels ne savent pas pourquoi ils consomment ces produits. Comment l'aider ? #eCOMMTL
    • Le client au centre du e-commerce chez le naturiste #ecommtl pic.twitter.com/1qwqJzwfW7
    • Produits naturels "le naturiste" doit définir le "unique selling proposition" #usp de sa marque pour diriger ses activités futures #eCOMMTL
    • C'est en offrant une bonne expérience web que l'on garde nos clients selon @MatyasGabor @w_illi_am #ecommtl
    • La transformation numérique développée en parallèle de la transformation des boutiques "le naturiste" #eComMTL
    • Donner de l'empowerment au consommateur Naturiste est un des mandat de la marque pour le futur #eComMTL avec @MatyasGabor et Melanie Kau
    • La tablette numérique un essentiel de l'expérience client en boutique chez le naturiste #eComMTL
    • un vrai virage #ecommerce = acquérir une nouvelle clientèle plus jeune et satisfaire le clientèle à toute heure de la journée #eComMTL
    • Le naturiste avait besoin d'une cure de rajeunissement - son site web datait du début des années 2000 #ecommtl pic.twitter.com/0NyfrIEr7H
    • Passer plusieurs jours en magasin pour comprendre le processus d'achat en magasin pour créer lenaturiste.ca #eComMTL pic.twitter.com/dRhX64QgEr
    • Les persona sont essentiels pour bien définir l'expérience e-commerce #eComMTL lenaturiste.ca
    • Ouvrir un site ecommerce demande 4x les $ en promotion, comme pour la promo d'un film #eComMTL
    • Ouvrir un site e-commerce c'est comme ouvrir une boutique au pôle nord" #eComMTL #lenaturiste
    • Les participants à la présentation sur le naturiste au #eComMTL pic.twitter.com/cUYOY7BI8D
    • "Un site eComm coûte x alors 4x devrait être mis sur la mise en marché, comme une super production hollywoodienne" #ecommtl @MatyasGabor

    Case Study: Institut de cardilogie

    • J'assiste à "Le marketing par courriel au service des dons en ligne - Avec @Publipage" @alexsagala et Mélanie La Couture de @ICMtl #eComMTL
    • @alexsagala @ICMtl Mélanie la couture présente le témoignage de Jean fondationicm.org/fr/temoignages… #eComMTL
    • La salle au #eComMTL pour la présentation sur le marketing par courriel pic.twitter.com/7ZKEFc0TA8
    • #emailmarketing #infolettre fonctionne très fort et donne des résultats pic.twitter.com/KFOec5TMIl
    • 18 fois plus de revenus générés par des courriels segmentés que de masses #ecommtl
    • #ecommtl marketing par courriel pour la fondation de l' @icmtl - Courriels pertinents = 18x plus de revenus pic.twitter.com/eT166D5fP5
    • Lors de campagnes courriel la personnalisation permet d'augmenter de 14% le taux de clics et de 10% le taux de conversions #eComMTL
    • 495 infolettres envoyées par année #CRHA. Waouh! Quel est le taux d'ouverture? #eComMTL
    • “@RomainTiry: @RostaGayino et quel est le taux de désabonnement...? #eComMTL” 0,3%
    • Segmentez vos messages et contenus, Personnalisez vos emailings, facilitez l'acquisition de donateurs #ecommtl @alexsagala #marketing #dons
    • les #infolettre permettent d'aller chercher des clients engagés: plus de visites, restent plus longtemps #eComMTL
    • #eComMTL La roue de l'acquisition pour la fondation de l' @ICMtl présentée par @alexsagala de @publipage pic.twitter.com/aKce6xY1g4
    • #eComMTL Passer de la personnalisation, à l'individu! #hyperpersonnalisation @ICMtl @publipage pic.twitter.com/wTCI14hDeD
    • L'email marketing reste toujours plus fort que les réseaux sociaux #eComMTL

    CaseStudy: magazine Protegez-vous

    • On assiste à la conférence de @eleveille de @ProtegezVous (notre client) : Les chantiers numeriques du magazine Protégez-Vous #eComMTL
    • 1.5M emails par mois par @protegezvous, 50% taux d'ouverture, 30% taux de clics - wow! #eComMTL
    • Comparatif du lectorat web/magasine 2009 vs 2013 @ProtegezVous #eComMTL pic.twitter.com/ZvJlp0UN0S
    • Protegez-vous.ca : de 167,000 visiteurs par mois à 650,000/mois en seulement 5 ans #eComMTL
    • Des chiffres sur la progression du numérique chez @ProtegezVous #eComMTL pic.twitter.com/ZGO5chKJzp
    • Encore plus de chiffres sur le numérique chez @ProtegezVous #eComMTL pic.twitter.com/J4mKTgIrgw
    • une video sur la comparaison des beurres d'arachides pour le site web de @protegezvous #drole #bienFait #eComMTL
    • fmheir: La recherche apporte plus de 50% du trafic chez @ProtegezVous #eComMTL http://t.co/E1lDfiI3GW
    • Absolunet: @ProtegezVous nous présente son contenu vidéo #ecommtl https://t.co/x0uX0xDPcn
    • Absolunet: 10% des abonnés par courriel sont convertis au bout d'un an parfois... @ProtegezVous #eComMTL
    • fmheir: #super survol des différents outils #numériques utilisés par @protegezvous survivre à la fin du papier #eComMTL
    • fmheir: on récupère chez @protegezvous environ 120 nouveaux abonnés par mois sur #Facebook #eComMTL
    • Absolunet: @ProtegezVous est le 5e magazine au Québec ayant le plus de fans sur Facebook #eComMTL
    • fmheir: Analyse de profitabilité des contenus chez @ProtegezVous #eComMTL http://t.co/nCJRtyUY0W

    Google presentation on eCommerce in Canada

    • LouisChausse: 40% des ventes en ligne au canada sont faites sur amazon #ecommtl
    • eCom_Montreal: "Customers expect fast shipping and low prices, it's becoming the new norm" @nectarios #eComMTL http://t.co/FOY3S7HkR9
    • alexandrebeland: 40% des canadiens avouent qu'ils ont procéder à un achat en ligne après avoir reçu un offre par courriel #eComMTL
    • LouisChausse: 50% des canadiens sont prêt à attendre 8 jours pour la livraison alors qu' on parle de 24% au US #ecommtl
    • GabishLight: Number of clients x (basket size x frequency) = formula for retail success. #eComMTL

    Case Study: La Presse+

    • fmheir: #ecommtl #lapresse+ seulement 20% des efforts de développement http://t.co/aL7jCkJFux
    • fmheir: Besoin de créer un studio d'enregistrement chez #lapresseplus pour transformer la façon de faire les choses #ecommtl http://t.co/zLeUCV66ak
    • fmheir: Blockbuster a disparu parce que est resté dans le déni #ecommtl http://t.co/n6mo0yePwE
    • fmheir
      L'engagement sur #lapresse ou le web ou le mobile est très différent #ecommtl http://t.co/uiIdV1v04M
      2014-04-24 16:15

    • fmheir: L'engagement sur #lapresse ou le web ou le mobile est très différent #ecommtl http://t.co/uiIdV1v04M
    • fmheir: #lapresseplus cherche à créer de l'engagement et raconter des histoires et permettre d'avoir du #temps avec les lecteurs #ecommtl
    • fmheir: #lapresseplus choisit ses employés avec la bonne attitude et ensuite les aptitudes #ecommtl
    • eCom_Montreal: "Il faut toujours se réinventer, sinon on va disparaître!" @lapresseplus #eComMTL  #lemondechange http://t.co/JOlZnMkQR9
    • fmheir: 45min en semaine, 75min le samedi dans #lapresseplus - wow pour les annonceurs qui amènent 30% des revenus #ecommtl http://t.co/YLsAVoTAhP

    Un concept super intéressant: le club de lecture d'affaires

    • LectureAffaires: On continue avec @MathieuHalle Président du RCEQ il présente ses livres d'affaires coup de coeur au #eComMTL http://t.co/2WtAP9aoUz


    A long read, it represents a great summary of two books and many articles about Google. Must read to understand where Google comes from and where it may be going. Makes a socially-inept freak likeable - I wouldn't be able to work with such a man, never mind be his friend, but I appreciated what he does and wish I could do some.

    Very good overview of big data with a few good slides that summarize context and opportunities.

    Very useful, if not complete, list of things to do to erase your life on the Internet. The post also has useful links to services that can partially automate the process.

    That is why "Marketers mailed 11.9 billion catalogs in 2013". Amazing read and reminder: most people still use printed catalogs - even I do and enjoy them - and go in store to shop and view products. What's important is to make online experience seamless.

    Interesting that Facebook remains very relevant (I guess the fact that teenagers are leaving FB is more than compensated with old folks getting into it). Pinterest value goes without saying, it is a huge visual catalog after all!

    A great list of tools, very useful. I am amazed at how many I do not know... and to think that I thought I knew many. Goes to show how little I know!

    A picture is worth a thousand words.

    http://www.capgemini.com/cloud-services The Cloud economy has set a new benchmark for making easy, quick, and flexible solutions widely available. Theoretica...

    Again Capgemini survey shows strong measurable benefits for companies that embrace digital.

    I love to read these weekly interviews. More often than not they are about products and companies that I did not know existed but that I found super interesting. I can't read them fast enough but thought I'd share anyways.


    BTW, I discovered shoplocket by accident. They provide a very unique eCommerce platform where you can sell few products - just one or two will do! It addresses a real need for startups and entrepreneurs. They are also under utilized because their platform can be used to test a new idea, a new product, a new eCommerce offering, even for large retailers or brands. Oh well...

    (article is in french) looks like Canada is catching up in the cloud computing world- Forbes 2012 article was clear about that. Governments, in particular the Quebec government are now targetting local cloud providers with servers in their jurisdiction as preferred partners. 


    The decision will in the short term limit solutions - not all SaaS solutions can guarantee hosting in a specific country. On the other hand this will spark a higher level of local investment in the field, which is good.


    I also like the IDC Canada - Telus report cited in the article, which provides some interesting survey data about the state of the cloud computing in Canada. I like their simple diagram that shows the progression of IT sourcing methods, it says it all.


    This goes along with the realization that the cold Canadian weather and low electricity costs may actually be the best to host large server farms. It may actually be a better use of our Hydro energy that the production of aluminium?

    For the technologically-minded, and contrary to what you may think by reading the headline, this technology may actually provide a solution to a real problem.


    Mobile usage is growing at phenomenal rates. Now everybody must have a mobile website, not only for browsing content but also for commerce and entertainment. Phones have become small computers, with screen resolutions that rival TVs that are just a few years old. This puts a tremendous pressure on the cellular networks which must, in order to cope with the increased demand, manage the bandwidth and charge an arm-and-a-leg for data plans.


    So any technology that unclogs the last mile, from the cell tower to the cell phone itself will sure be a winner.

    Not only is this a great idea - a modular phone where you can exchange parts - it brings a new look at product design in general. It may actually open the world to much more eco-friendly designs and even - who knew - bring back the repair shop where you would actually keep electronic devices and repair them when they fail or some part becomes obsolete. Just like in the old days. Maybe we have come full circle...?


    Also have a look at this other engadget post and watch the 2 minute video on the ARA project where you'll get to see a behind the scenes view of Google team and partners. Very cool.

    Disruptive technology: A 1568 printing press. The technology brought social upheaval.


    We haven’t come to grips with what is ethical, let alone with what the laws should be, in relation to technologies such as social media. Consider the question of privacy. Our laws date back to the late 19th century, when newspapers first started publishing personal information and Boston lawyer Samuel Warren objected to social gossip published about his family. This led his law partner, future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, to write the law review article “The Right of Privacy.” Their idea that there exists a right to be left alone, as there is a right to private property, became, arguably, the most famous law review article ever and laid the foundation of American privacy law.


    The gaps in privacy laws have grown exponentially since then.

    Provides interesting historical perspective -printing press, steam engine, etc.- to privacy and other related issues that technology - and digital transformation in particular - have exacerbated. 

    Welcome to the AWS Architecture Blog

    At Amazon Web Services we have the great fortune to work on many interesting large-scale distributed systems, as well as the privilege to observe our customers achieve audacious goals. Many highly available services, web sites, and business systems have been built on top of Amazon Web Services.

    This new blog, the AWS Architecture blog, will dive a little deeper than our documentation or announcements and provide further information and technical details for customers interested in building more highly available applications and services on top of Amazon Web Services.

    We’ll be disharing posts from many AWS team members covering areas including, but not limited to:

    • High availability configurations for using AWS services
    • Relentless and creative testing
    • Architecture best practices for Amazon Web Services
    • Deployment and operational best practises
    • Comprehensive and speedy monitoring
    • Compartmentalization and fault isolation

    To get future posts, please check back often or subscribe to our blog using the RSS feed button at the top of the page or our twitter account (@AWSArchitecture).

    This new blog reference is much welcomed as it provides insights into one of the best cloud service.  What is of particular interest to me is the stories about actual solutions of actual websites and the solutions they have put in place. To me, case studies are the best form of guidance, as it provides concrete solutions that help you understand not only what to do but often what not to do.

    Another essential reference along those lines is the High Performance Websites blog by Steve Souders, which consistently provides useful case studies and examples of solutions to make websites go faster.

    These reference architectures date back to early 2013 but are still valid. They provide interesting guidance for architects looking to build an eCommerce solution on top of the Amazon Web Service platform.


    They also provide very useful insight into eCommerce architecture on its own. Just the fact that Amazon recommends a split between front-end ( the transactional part, where customers shop, with the usage of caching and noSQL database for speed and flexibility), the checkout (which includes all pick/pack activities and the very secure payment and credit card processing) and the marketing (where very dynamic and personalized product recommendations live), should all be reasons for architects to consider a similar partition in their own architectures.

    Marketing Technology…NOW!

     

    Have a comment? Email it to info@ineomarketing.com or comment below. I’ll publish it here.

     

    Today’s curated articles collected for your quick review:

    -- > 5 mistakes companies make when automating their marketing - VentureBeat http://sco.lt/5hHRZp

    -- > Why 55% of Potential B2B Buyers Might Not Trust Your Website Content - CMI http://sco.lt/8TZ8Nt

    -- > E-commerce: B2B grows online traffic 25% through use of marketing cloud http://sco.lt/5NtUnp

    -- > Product is Not the Hero of a B2B Company's Story - Marketing Interactions http://sco.lt/6TNcyf

    -- > 13 Google+ Tools to Improve Your Marketing | Social Media Examiner http://sco.lt/7jeW5x

    -- > 53 Percent of B2B Fortune 500 Companies Use Marketing Automation - ClickZ http://sco.lt/5GsCNl

    -- > Maximize Your Impact On Social Media Networks (Best Practices Guide) - CoSchedule http://sco.lt/5Z2Wht

    -- > 15% of Websites are Responsive - 'Net Features http://sco.lt/5LLNgH

    -- > Eight Secrets of Success With LinkedIn PPC Ads - Profs http://sco.lt/6NQKIL

    -- > [FREE] Scoring & Grading Handbook - Pardot http://sco.lt/4pPVY1

    -- > Infographic: Trends in Recruiting Content Marketers - Marketing Technology Blog http://sco.lt/8DB4fh

    -- > The Science of a Killer Blog Post: Images - infographic - Digital Information World http://sco.lt/8YgBm5

    -- > The Secrets to Writing an Attention-Grabbing Blog Post [Infographic] - HubSpot http://sco.lt/507rhx

    I have not read all of them but plan to do so during this weekend's rainy Sunday morning...

    Read the stats and ask yourself the same question in your business: how many of your customers shop online on Amazon.com? Is that percentage higher or lower than those using your own eCommerce site?


    If the answer is lower, then you are loosing money.


    If you do not have an ecommerce website, the answer is even easier to get.

    Short piece that highlights the facts that 

    1- Canada has lots of incentives to establish your startup

    2- being in Silicon valley may lead you to falsely think you have a good business model because not all business ideas that work in San Francisco will elsewhere in America and ROW

    Not easy to get devOps to work in large organizations though, it is reassuring to see it taking hold.

    Great slide deck full of useful data on Canadian eCommerce. nothing new, just more of the same: we are behind, but growing real fast.

    the infographics and details that goes with an earlier post.


    91 points checklist to eCommerce conversion via @cueblocks http://sco.lt/82qXmD

    The title is very clear it seems: retailers that do not embrace eCommerce will see their revenues shrink and ultimately will become insignificant. 


    I agree.

    I just picked up the book on Kindle from amazon. Should make for a great read.

    We see change management as a major challenge when trying to introduce a digital transformation. I was not aware of the SCARF model presented here but it does offer some interesting insight that we should consider more when doing our digital transformation job.

    Along the same lines of a previous post

    #Countries With More #Money Tend To Be More #Godless via @bi http://sco.lt/5lMicT


    This one however brings a very good analysis of the possible reasons for the correlation, along with remaining unknowns.


    That being said, with all the media attention around "la charte des valeurs" in Quebec, US religious growth in the US politics, and of course all the more extreme religious countries, especially in the middle east, one can only wonder where the discrepancy with these data points comes from?

    Jump straight to slides 3 & 4 for a good overview diagram of social media evolution and use cases for command centers. Here in Quebec, not many of our corporations leverage such CCs, probably because we lack the kind of large multinationals that would benefit from the insight that social media can provide, on a global basis.


    However, I can assume that most large organization would benefit from it, maybe with the creation of a group of people distributed across the organization, equipped with the right kind of tools.

    Why so much fuss about a technology that works so-so at best (ask a physician that uses Dragon speech recognition)? Because it is essential when you shrink the device size. Phone keyboards are difficult to use, and they will be completely absent from most wearable devices : watches, google glasses, TV remote controls, etc.


    In a controlled environment, with limited vocabulary and restricted tasks, voice-recognition is impressive. In a business setting, say in a machine shop, shop floor, retail store backroom, voice control will be the norm and I expect all new digital implementations should consider them. Especially given the options that exist from Apple, Google and now Microsoft!


    Despite their diversity, Gartner believes that all current examples can be simply categorized into four basic usage scenarios, each of which presents clear business opportunities for end-user organizations.

     Manage — Looking at the Status of the Asset to Improve Utilization
    This model is essentially involved in the optimization of asset utilization within an environment. As various assets (which could be a device or piece of equipment, or a location, such as a meeting room or a parking space) are connected and are able to provide up-to-date status information, then utilization can be optimized through appropriate systems to match assets with needs. The assets may be simple and report very limited data (occupied or vacant, for example), or they could be very complex (such as a jet engine) and involve multiple sensors reporting real-time streams of data, which may amount to terabytes per hour — but this does not detract from the essential value model.  

    1. Monetize — Charging for Usage of the Asset on an Incremental Basis

    This is a specific business model that is about the monetization of a physical asset by accurately measuring usage. It enables a (potentially very expensive) capital asset to be used as the basis for a usage-based service. This brings business opportunities to replace capital expenditure with operating expenditure, more-accurate plotting of product life cycle and more-effective preventive maintenance. An example is monitoring engine hours, actual load, fuel usage and so on of a piece of equipment to bill usage against actual wear and tear. By combining this information with location, speed and time information, the enterprise can accurately assess additional charges to reflect the risk. This could apply to a "pay as you drive" vehicle insurance service, a clear example of the application of this use case to physical objects not actually owned by the enterprise itself.

    1. Operate — Using the Asset to Control Its Surroundings

    This model builds on the well-established realm of "operational technology," which is technology used to manage the equipment and processes inside manufacturing plants. Operational technology is increasingly moving away from the proprietary and isolated architectures of the past to exploit more mainstream technology, software and architectures and, in doing so, coming in some cases under the CIO's and the IT department's purview. Simple examples to control a valve, but in a more complex example, the data from thousands of sensors might combine weather and atmospheric conditions with water flow, pressure and depth information to manage entire water supply or irrigation systems. It will reduce the need to physically visit the remote device, and avoid hazardous environmental conditions around the device.

    1. Extend — Providing Additional Digital Information or Services Through an Asset

    A physical supply chain ends when a product or asset is shipped. However, when that asset is connected, a digital supply chain continues to exist in which digital services and products can be delivered to that asset. In effect, the physical asset is extended with digital services. Simple examples might be automatic (perhaps subscription-based) downloads of firmware to a device to provide new capabilities or rectify newly identified faults. Owners of a connected automobile may download the ability to upgrade or extend the driving mode of the car. More-complex examples might be the provision of advisory information (such as imminent part failure, and excessive wear or overheating of a device) to avoid the costs of failure through preventive action. Media content is a digital product that could be sent to any connected asset, such as streaming movies to a train seat.

    A very elegant way to present what can be done with IoT with executives: measure, monetize, operate or extend.

    Basic/ Digest...


    Here’s how to ensure your “behind-the-scenes” stories rock:

    1. Show unusual results

    If you’re going to reveal your tricks, you’ll want to make sure that people are actually wowed by your magic.

    2. Dish the specifics

    Unusual results hook readers, but it’s the details you reveal that will keep them on the line. Milestones are extremely effective because they give the reader benchmarks and provide narrative structure.

    3. Show repeat success

    If you want to impress discerning readers, repeat success is a requisite.

    4. Discuss both strategy and tactics

    It’s not a choice between the two—you should share both your strategies and tactics with your readers. It’s quite simple: Explain the principles behind your actions, and then back it up with a concrete example.

    5. Spice it up and serve it out

    It’s crucial for you to give your veggies that right spice or caramel glaze; you also need to make your readers care enough to share.

     

    ____________________________________________________

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    Always good to be reminded. No rocket science here though.

    Interested in eCommerce? The schedule of presentations at eCom Montreal has just come out.

    Very geeky. For the most part you would not be caught wearing one of those but the idea that these glasses exist may trigger an idea for an application in a business setting, where wearing something dorky isn't an issue when you are paid for it ;-)

    Typical reaction from an established retailer: Amazon entry into the sale of musical instruments (75000 products offered on amazon.ca) will not affect my sales. I believe he is wrong. US sales demonstrates that he is wrong.


    Article also brings some interesting stats

    • Canadian site now has almost same offering as in the US
    • eCommerce sales are at 20B$ in 2013, growing at 10% per year (for next 5 years at least)


    If you can read french then this post may interest you:

    Survivrez-vous au précipice numérique?


    Otherwise, read those recent posts:

    • Online Sales is transforming the supermarket store design: center of store will slowly disappear via @nrf @booz http://sco.lt/9AWJeb (also has a number of other references)
    • The list of eCommerce solutions is impressive- why are businesses not selling online? via @andrewbleakeyhttp://sco.lt/8PRwjR
    • How many warehouses do retailers need to fulfill Internet orders? via IR_Magazine http://sco.lt/97ph9F
    • More signs that online grocery is the retail battleground of walmart and Amazon via @tchttp://sco.lt/7RoH8j
    • As much as 33% of Internet sales gets returned? good reason why digital transformations require planning via @wsj http://sco.lt/5eALiL

    This just confirms that iWatch will not be for telling time. "As can be seen in the above images, Healthbook has sections that can track data pertaining to bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight."


    Read the article and then start saving for end of year when this device is announced!

    (in french but direct link to english PWC report included)

    Interesting report that shows SaaS accounts for <5% of revenues for Microsoft and IBM, but looking at the revenues in $ shows that SaaS is a meaningful billion dollar a year market for software publishers.

    I have downloaded the office apps but have yet to try them out. If they only allow me to "view" the office files on an iPad, they will be worth it (and free!). If they do a decent job at "creating" new files on an iPad, then they'll be worth the Office365 subscription and actually make the iPad a decent laptop replacement!


    Mark my words : you'll see 13inch and 15inch iPads and Android tablets in the near future if Office apps are as good as the initial reviews make them sound.

    This is great for my kids, who will join the workforce in the next 10 years: there will be plenty of job offers for them. From a digital transformation standpoint this represents both a challenge and tremendous opportunity for businesses to digitize as they will not be ale to find talent to replace all the boomers that leave. Digital will provide a way to remain competitive with a smaller workforce. This is a well known trend, has been for years, yet few of us include it in our planning.

    Very techno-geeky summary of a nanotechnology paper. This is for all my microelectronics friends and also to anyone that believes we are at end of evolution possible with microelectronics. We have indeed reached the limits of the current technologies but new ones like this come in play to carry moore's law further.


    The singularity is near will happen.


    See also

    Digital Transformation- We Haven't Seen Anything Yet: 3 min video worth watching via @capgemini http://sco.lt/5YVBnV

    Raises interesting questions regarding the expectation end users have of Internet speed and quality of service In a digital world, should we have different classes of Internet content, high speed and low speed, depending how much you pay and who pays for what?

    Advanced/ Excerpt...


    One of the accidental themes of the event was the use of vehicles as an analogy for marketing automation. Gerry Murray, Marketing Operations Research Manager at IDC, built his car analogy around the four key components for marketing technology: data and analytics; management and administration; interaction management; and content. These core pillars are what IDC uses at the heart of their marketing technology map to deliver data-driven marketing guidance for their clients. Because data is available within each component, it can be used to optimize everything that happens in marketing and can help drive collaboration among teams. Data can be used to tie a culture together and the integrated approach of marketing technology helps facilitate this change. Marketing, sales, finance, operations, product teams—they do not need to function in silos thanks to marketing technology.

     

    In addition, rather than using individual point solutions for each element of the marketing vehicle, organizations can use a single cloud provider. There are plenty of single source tools for any given requirement of the marketing cloud, but is it necessary to use so many different tools? On the provider side, there is the competitive drive among cloud leaders to win the Marketing Cloud war. Ultimately it is up to the organization to determine if they will build a best-in-breed marketing technology stack or leverage the consolidated solutions of cloud leaders.

     

    ____________________________________________________

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    Useful insight if you are getting into the field and plan to develop your own app or device. Otherwise, probably too geeky... ;-)

    Useful checklist. True, it takes not very long and should be part of a monthly or quarterly TODO in the marketing department, with a wide distribution across your organization. Actually, every employee should get the results of this audit, if only to know about it but also, maybe, to contribute to it?

    If you have read the book "On Intelligence" then you will be happy to see that Numenta has put this brain architecture model into a solution to help detect server failures and anomalies in traffic or usage. 


    Also read:


    --- Palm Pilot Inventor Wants to Open Source the Human Brain- real world applications from the book "On Intelligence" ... http://sco.lt/6Mpg8H


    --- Grok Technology explained via @grok @numenta http://sco.lt/4lqtfN

    In french but the URLs should be usable and fairly easy to understand what they do. They provide a view from "behind the screen" especially on information that Google has on you, and how to manage it a bit.

    A high level overview of 4 tools to simplify your data visualization, from inboxes (immersion) to country's cultural impact (Pantheon).


    For those interested, I wrote about Immersion in the context of information privacy earlier last year.


    Immersion: a people-centric view of your email life- creepy privacy concerns & competitive intelligence via @mit http://sco.lt/4jOh61

    According to new data published by the Pew Research Center, direct visitors to news websites are much more engaged than those coming from search engines or social networks. While the latter two may be indispensable for news websites to be discovered in the first place, those (returning) readers that have a site bookmarked or consciously type in its address are the ones who are truly valuable to online publishers.

    The message is simple: if your website is well made, people will come back to it directly and if they do they will be "Sold" to consume your content.

    On se plaint ici des pertes de revenus de taxes (15% sur 1B$ = 150M$ quand même). Mais il faudrait aussi souligner que c'est 1B$ de ventes perdues par nos marchands...

    We were not pioneers but freaking early bird techno geeks on the bleeding edge!

    I love data!

    We will see more of this for sure: good technology hijacked for bad intent. But never thought that loyalty card programs could be turned into digital food ration cards. !Viva la technologia!

    (in french) Looks like cloud is slowly maturing. As the post says, 20% penetration is mostly in mid-size organizations using public cloud. Nevertheless, this is great news as it shows the business case for cloud is now being easier to selll

    Yes mobile will prove to be much more beneficial in the next 10 years than in the past 20 where all we've got was portable music player and camera integration. Health tracking will open a whole new world of improvements and opportunities.

    I like the idea of the white paper but unfortunately it is a thinly veiled  marketing brochure for IFS ERP. Nevertheless, it raises a few good points around ERP and E2.0 integration. In particular, just the thought of having access to real-time integration of chat and other social media features could prove beneficial in certain business environments.

    No surprise here: Canadian retailers online lag compared to US counterpart. Nevertheless very good list that opens eye  as to what is working and what is not.

    A successful internal competitive intelligence function will distill all available information to the most salient and actionable points, allowing key decision-makers to act faster and with greater confidence, but the road to establishing such a function can be confusing and challenging.

    Empirical evidence over two decades demonstrates that companies with internal CI functions outperform peers without CI capabilities, responding more quickly and effectively to market threats and realizing benefits on innovation, cost control, revenue generation, and market share growth. Implementing a successful CI function, however, can be challenging, and your company risks setbacks such as inadequate IT infrastructure, internal conflicts, insufficient participation incentives, and limited training/mentoring programs.

    ..

    The need to improve data centers as we grow our cloud usage when moving to digital continues. Connectivity between servers is key as this article shows.


    It also reminds me of an Aviva case study I reviewed in the past where the digital transformation to improve internal communications required a massive re-engineering of the telecom infrastructure between offices because it was not appropriate for the increase in trafic that video communications would bring. I recommend you listen to the following:


    Aviva case study (video)- Driving Business Transformation with Visual Communications Solutions http://sco.lt/59RdOj

    Worth noting is the relative immaturity of enterprises (only 17% are strategic) but seeing growth in staffing, with 10-40 headcounts in large organization, and growing. Interesting to note that the organization of this talent remains very traditional, few companies embedding the social media "holistically" within the organization.

    essential equipment for road warriors and normal people as well. Digital transformations are often plague with technology limitations. Today, battery life is one of them!

    Britain is ahead of the maturity curve in its use of the Internet, eCommerce in particular. They have embraced online grocery shopping more than any other country.


    The eCommerce spike in Feb due to climate conditions may provide a good view into the future: when eCommerce is available, then it really does become an option when it is difficult to go to the physical store. We see this every year at christmas where people now prefer to shop online rather than go and wait in overcrowded stores...

    here is an access to become an early user of the tool.

    Will report back after the March 12 webinar.

    This is an email newsletter from Forrester on Business Transformation which stresses the impact of digital. 

    Fancy words to say that you should capture data, store it where it is easily available, analyze it so you understand it, and then take action, trusting your data is valid. We've been talking about this for years, first with data warehouses and business intelligence (BI), now with Big Data and Analytics.

    Here's a horror story every startup employee should be aware of.

    Earlier this week, we published a story about the three ways VCs and CEOs screw-over startup employees.

    One of those three ways is through the difference between "preferred stock," which investors get, and "common stock," which employees get.


    no comment, just good info.

    I share because it is a beautiful design.

    PCI-DSS is an essential international standard that verifies that merchants and service providers are appropriately protecting credit card data. Easy to implement, it remains mind blowing how companies can fail to fully comply.


    Essential reading for anyone in the ecommerce field.

    No comment.

    Wow. Another example of digital disruption. It means a lot to all those holding copyright. The message: share, embrace the web otherwise people will bypass you.

    Amazing for its miniaturization.

    You know of paypal, right? Well Stripe is another amazingly simple payment solution for eCommerce sites that is attracting a lot of attention. You should know about them too.

    Very cool piece on another digital flip, or how digital is transforming an industry. In this case, delivery services. The US post office - like all other post office service in the world - has seen shrinking volume of letters, mostly due to the prevalence of email in today's world. 


    What if this marks the start of subsidized parcel delivery? As it was for letters, we could see this mark the beginning of an affordable parcel delivery, even in remote areas of the country. In the US it would be good. In Canada, it would be great and is pretty much essential, as the cost to deliver packages is astronomical.


    Also consider reading this piece in the Washington Post where they rightfully point out that this use of a government body by a private sector company is something relatively new they label "reverse contracting".

    Amazon’s brilliant plan to rescue the Postal Service and disrupt the shipping industry

    I have this issue of too many tabs and thought I would share this as well.

    I have not looked at the raw data or the report itself but I find interesting that 

    - 98% of traffic goes through untouched

    - the analysis does not raise the question of how much traffic was "inspected" or looked at


    I always like these quadrants. Not so much for the rating or the position of bubbles, triangles, or squares but for the insight it provides into the trends of the day. 


    I always appreciate Dion's viewpoint as he often tries to make sense of ideas and concepts that float around without much structure. In this case, the list is worth reading, if only to keep up to speed with the buzzwords (I did not know there was such a thing a "the quantified enterprise" - wow).


    Moreover, as I've been trying to help my clients handle the "enterprise 2.0" since its early days, I find that what was initially a fairly well defined concept (bringing social into the enterprise) has now grown into a mix-grill of digital technologies - which is much in-line with the digital transformation of businesses I care so much about.

    All the stats you may want to know regarding the Internet of Things. Limited to the consumer market: not much in there for the business, and nothing regarding manufacturing and other industries and segments that will surely be impacted by IoT.

    The informal study is interesting for those that wear or plan to wear sleep trackers.

    I recommend reading the Retail Innovation document for anyone looking for great examples of retailers that are innovating in the digital space. I was especially impressed with Hointer apparel retailer...

    I like this chart because it is in line with the singularity concept that Ray Kurzweil has been touting since he wrote the book the singularity is near. In a nutshell, things happen at an exponential pace, each new technology building from the previous ones. 


    What this shows is how soon (2020's) we may have autonomous driving cars. It starts to ask very good questions such as what will happen when cars drive themselves, how will it transform society. 


    I know I can't wait for it in the field of eCommerce, as it would solve some of the delivery issues.

    New Relic tool gives more insight into web and mobile application performance. An essential component of any professionally run web solution, it goes hand in hand with the devOps approach which gives developers a greater insight - and responsibility over the online software they deploy.

    When i think of next shoring I think of amazon bringing warehouses close to customers, eliminating the need for retail stores via its internet website. Huge transformation made possible by a number of factors, one of which is digital transformation. Must read.

    Sounds too easy to be real but a great idea nevertheless. How could we use the same idea in other contexts?

    A source of web data and studies form Google, useful when creating presentations.

    Interesting roundup because I knew none of these companies. Just goes to show how much activity there is in the Bay area...

    I find useful when mongoDB provides use cases for its tools. Great to hear you can do big things with big data. Better when someone actually provides pointers to good scenarios where to apply it.

    Contains a high level description of the way bitcoins work. But be careful, slightly technical read ahead! ;-)

    Bitcoins remain a risky proposition, we all know that. What this event provides is how much attention bitcoin have received - and speculation - in a world where there are no rules. No government regulation, just "code of conduct" from its users. 

    Absolutely obvious lessons but then again, living by those principles is not easy in most organizations. Consider the first lesson, "go cloud first" appears natural and obvious but my experience still shows that most projects will be against it for security and cost reasons. 

    no comment but a great weekend project! ;-)

    Also worth pondering when looking at the graph is that cloud computing will soon become a matter of fact technology.

    We are just at the beginning of the true impact of digital in our lives. 

    A great way to use crowd to perform a very important task. Could this not be applied to more than just websites? 

    This post reminds of a too familiar issues when it comes to digital transformation: change management. We, digital-minded people, minimize it and often it comes back to prevent success.


    It reminds me of the Apple pirate flag story (or at least my interpretation of it). When Apple was designing the macintosh, the team moved into a new building and planted a pirate flag on the roof. The idea was simple: identify the macintosh team as a rebel organization that would overtake everyone else. Even quite possible the "existing Apple", the company that made the Apple II. They recognized early that the mac would require a major transformation that could ultimately kill its existing business.


    I find very few businesses ready today to make that same bold statement when it comes to digital transformation. Which often leaves plenty of room for disruptors to come in and steal the show. 

    Malware is not only the territory of USA, Israel, Britain, China or Russia. 

    I agree that health trackers will have a profound impact on our lives in the next few years. Moreover, as this post suggest, they will transform the way medecine and patient tracking will be done in the future.

    Another model for grocery pickup and delivery is proposed by instacart, which has a business model similar to Uber. They hire individuals to do the picking and delivery and leverage stores for fulfillment. I cannot believe that this will make for a low cost and high quality solution but it may provide a very good niche offer for a while.

    The BestBuy omni-channel strategy document was made public in Nov 2012 and is available online. Sheds light into the company current state versus competitors and the strategy to regain its position.

    Electronics retail giant Best Buy Canada is cutting 950 jobs at its namesake and Future Shop stores as it streamlines its business to take on tougher competition.


    The job cuts underscore the increasingly competitive retail landscape as U.S. discount giants Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. expand in this country, other new foreign merchants arrive and online players steal away business from incumbents, leaving them scrambling to keep up.


    Best Buy’s same-store sales, a key measure of revenue at locations open for at least 12 months, fell by 0.9 per cent during the crucial holiday period. And margins were worse than expected


    The retailer enjoyed more than 50-per-cent sales growth in its e-commerce business in the past year while its new in-store “reserve and pick-up” service more than doubled in that period, Mr. Wilson said.


    I wrote about the digital cliff a while back ("Survivrez-vous au précipice numérique?"), the concept that says digital transformations do not happen slowly over time. Digital transformation usually transform whole industries within a few years, rapidly, with established players disappearing overnight for the benefit of relative newcomers. It happened in the book industry, the music industry, the travel industry, the yellow pages industry and now is happening in the retail industry. 


    What is challenging for digital natives is that the signs have been there for years, decades in fact, that retail will have to change due to the introduction of digital technology. It was the Internet at first, then came the mobile devices and soon, the revolution in order delivery and shipping. We are not sure yet what the retail store of the future will look like but we can assume it will look more like an Apple store than a Best Buy store:

    • small store
    • more there for service, training, help than to sell products (that will be done mostly on the online store
    • flexible delivery and return, with pick-up in store and overnight delivery options


    Also read those recent posts:

    • Online Sales is transforming the supermarket store design: center of store will slowly disappear via @nrf @booz http://sco.lt/9AWJeb (also has a number of other references)
    • The list of eCommerce solutions is impressive- why are businesses not selling online? via @andrewbleakey http://sco.lt/8PRwjR
    • How many warehouses do retailers need to fulfill Internet orders? via IR_Magazine http://sco.lt/97ph9F
    • More signs that online grocery is the retail battleground of walmart and Amazon via @tc http://sco.lt/7RoH8j
    • As much as 33% of Internet sales gets returned? good reason why digital transformations require planning via @wsj http://sco.lt/5eALiL

    The conclusions in the post - that there are 4 groups - may not be an insight you could not get otherwise but it represents an amazing data-driven insight that confirms our belief. Studying this change over time certainly holds promise.


    This is another interesting Big Data impact.


    However, I cannot help but wonder what analysis of social networks the various governments perform today, and what segmentation they derive from their analysis.


    Moreover, this kind of analysis is not outside the reach of large corporations, providing them with tools to segment and group populations according to what they say and how they behave on social networks. Fascinating as it opens so many opportunities. Also a bit scary.

    I get this question a lot and never know what to say because it really depends on a lot of parameters.


    Then again, if you want a first rule of thumb, these guys provide you with some answers. Assume these numbers as minimal costs and apply a 2x, 3x or 5x markup to account for your own company's need for custom development, tweaking, integration, and you should be in the right ballpark.

    This post should be required reading for executives and board members. And the first question should be: 

    "Are we considering technology as a strategic business lever and are our board members ready to ask the right questions and understand the answers?"


    Very good run down on the challenge and opportunities that IT infrastructure managers face in 2014. In this day and age of the cloud, large organization must transform the way they make private clouds available to the users.

    I found this review of eCommerce solutions quite useful so I share. 


    Given the hours I've spent building eCommerce catalogues, carts, checkouts, and everything around it, I find the solutions on the market today to be low cost, easy to use, and a great starting point for any business looking to sell online. Obviously, devil is in the details and you'll want to be aware of individual solution's limitations but they are minimal compared to building from scratch as we had to do 10 years ago.


    The real concerns should thus now move towards online order processing, returns management, customer service, promotion and marketing and product selection.


    Just like opening a brick-and-mortar store... ;-)

    This is just the beginning of insights we will get as we analyze the vast amount of data now being produced by digital devices, large or small, fixed or mobile.

    This is just the beginning of insights we will get as we analyze the vast amount of data now being produced by digital devices, large or small, fixed or mobile.

    Starting in the second quarter of 2013, Best Buy, No. 10 in Internet Retailer’s 2013 Top 500 Guide, began fulfilling web orders from 50 of its more than 1,500 U.S. stores. At first, Best Buy was much slower in delivering orders to customers than Amazon. But that changed over the holidays.


    During the summer, Best Buy took nearly seven days to deliver an order on average. That compared to  four days for orders made with Amazon.com, StellaService says. By October the gap had narrowed, to about two days and seven hours for Best Buy orders compared with about three days and 12 hours for Amazon orders. Best Buy lost ground in November. But on Dec. 13 the chain could claim victory, if only barely. Its orders were in the hands of customers in just under three days, while Amazon’s orders needed a few more hours.

    Looks like having real estate (read: stores) may not be as much as a liability as expected when it comes to eCommerce. This post breaks down the number of warehouses that online pure plays have but also makes the case that smart brick-n-mortar retailers can turn their stores into mini warehouses. Great idea if you think about it since stores are already close to where people live.


    I leveraged this concept back in the dotcom era to fulfill grocery orders from local stores instead of warehouses. Unfortunately, grocery may have been one of the worst product to implement this concept with, given the high SKU count, different planograms and inventory levels in each store, fresh products, large order size, etc. etc.


    But in the case of Best Buy, it may make sense if they can make 2 things work: real estate cost and delivery. Stores typically are in areas where rental rates are high compared to locations where warehouses are typically located. But that may actually be turned into an advantage if you leverage the location for customer pick-ups, which solves the high cost of delivery.


    Best Buy and other established retailer thus may have the upper hand here over Amazon that needs to build out its warehousing infrastructure. At least for a few years...

    A very good review of Google's invention that taps into the large database of information it collects about searches and makes it available to all of us to save time.


    I use Google autocomplete for other purpose than to simply save time. I use it for product research, trend analysis, and sometimes competitive analysis. I use it as inspiration and sometimes for guidance, when I am not sure exactly what to search for. An invaluable tool.

    My most recent blog post on DI regarding amazing use of Enterprise Architecture concepts and tools by Domtar IT to bridge the gap with business during the project portfolio budgeting season.

    Fascinating insight that companies such as jawbone can derive from the trove of data that is captured by their wearable devices such as the UP bracelet. I've been wearing a fitbit for 3 months now and the sleep data is to me one of the most fascinating because it represents information that I did not have before (as oppposed to number of steps for example).


    What I find interesting with Monica's work at jawbone is the anlaysis they've done over 50M nights of sleep and the kind of analysis that is expressed in the chart here. Wow, just so very insightful and useful. I'd love to be able to get insight on how I compare with similar people. And maybe one day get suggestion to improve my sleep.


    Of course, privacy is Paramount. I found that my sleep patterns are very personal and that I would not want them to become public. Something to consider and enforce at all costs.

    Interesting raw data. As we get closer to industrial internet, MDM, quantified self, etc. there is going to become an even more important data flood...

    The post dates back a little bit but GE continues to focus on this new field they call industrial internet.


    Useful data tidbit: a single airplane jet engine captures 5000 data points every second and generates GB of data on every flight. The impact of proper analysis of this data can result in tremendous savons and improvements. For example, a 1% improvement in efficiency in a gas turbine, over 15 years, results 66B in savings! 


    GE's challenge is not to capture this data (they do already) but it is to analyze it. IDC estimates that only 0.5% of the world's data is being analyzed. New tools and techniques related to BigData (hadoop, noSQL, etc.) can provide some answers.


    Additional reading:

    Just 0.5% of the Worlds Massive Trove of Online Data is Being Analyzed via @IDC http://sco.lt/8LRfhR


    According to the blog TalkTechToMe, 4,794 vulnerabilities in operating systems, programs and hardware were discovered last year. The National Vulnerability Database forms the basis of the study. Accordingly, Oracle, Cisco and Microsoft were the most often affected and 94 percent of discovered security vulnerabilities related to software. The operating systems most commonly affected were Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The programs with the most vulnerabilities were Internet Explorer, Java and Chrome.

    Follow the link to the TalkTechToMe blog to get detailed data and analysis. You'll also get this piece of advice, always true and always useful...


    To keep systems secure, it is critical to maintain them fully-patched. Extra attention is required for (patch them first):

    • Operating systems (Windows, Linux, OS X) 
    • Web browsers 
    • Java 
    • Adobe free products (Flash Player, Reader, Shockwave Player, AIR)

    Some interesting pictures and stats regarding walmart ToGo.

    For a while here in Montreal we had "le mannequin virtuel", a 3D computer model to help sell clothes online. Now this new robot provides a more natural option to determine how well a shirt, skirt or pant will fit. 


    Look at this video to see the robot in action. It appears to really do a great job at showing if a garment fits well or not.

    http://bit.ly/1iaueJb 


    Of course, retailers will be interested in the technology to reduce the high return rate the apparel industry has been experiencing. Not sure how the robots would be integrated into the online shopping experience? I also wonder if they could also help with in-store, where you would not have to try the clothes on but rather would let the robot do the work for you... Would bring a new tool to personal shopper, that could literally go "shop for now" and return only with the products that suit you perfectly. Of course, designers and others will benefit from having this new tool at their disposal.


    Read this for more details on the matter: As much as 33% of Internet sales gets returned? good reason why digital transformations require planning via @wsj http://sco.lt/5eALiL 

    Akamai State of Internet (SOTI) report always provides very interesting techno-geeky information regarding the traffic that is carried by Internet carriers worldwide. Released quarterly, it goes back to 2008 with stats and figures that can help you demonstrate your point with data - as we often have to do when considering digital disruptions.

    Infographics that summarizes the discrepency between what the market wants and needs - job seekers, employees - and what the talent professionals do, how they do it and with what they do it. I agree with Capgemini that HR still lags in its techniques, its communications and its technologies (even though the infographics is a bit light on details and the recommendations feel a bit generic)


    Case in point. Most organizations still rely on job postings and physical interviews to source candidates and assess their expertise. Few if any have moved the sourcing into social networks, leveraging the LinkedIn and Facebook networks of their employees (who better to know a good engineer than your existing employees in the engineering department - after all they probably went to school with most of them!) to identify the most promising candidates, getting recommendations from people that know them and trust them, then calling them up for a video interview.


    In this "Sourcing 2.0" scenario" no resume changes hand before a candidate has been vetted by its peers, thus reducing the number of interviews and increasing the quality of candidates that are being interviewed. Moreover this provides HR teams with access to "passive candidates", ie. those guys and girls that have a job right now and may need just the right kind of push to switch to a new job, employer or position...

    Very interesting insight from WSJ, the 33% figure appears to be very high and probably only applies to certain retailers or industries - apparel is the one feature in the article. One interesting figure from the article says "Rue La La said dealing with returns cost the company $5 million last year", which stresses the importance of the "transformation" component in your digital transformation plan.


    In fact, things like returns may come and bite you in the rear if they are not planned for and addressed properly early on. Poster child for this was Zappos (now Amazon) that built returns as part of the normal ordering process, making certain that returns were fast, easy and profitable. This was an essential component of the digital transformation because buying shoes online has a very negative aspect for the customer compared to in-store: they can't try the shoes before they buy. So Zappos *had* to make return a part of its process.


    Any digital transformation carries similar issues that must be accounted for early in the plan to make sure they do not kill your digital business model.

    Just sat through a good webinar presentation on ransomware cryptoblocker. It opened my eyes to this new trend of hacking into computers, encrypting files and then asking money to recuperate them. You have 36 hours to pay 300$ for the priviledge to recuperate your files. Ouch! Waiting longer can cost you even more - up to 8000$ is reported.


    It appears to be a growing form of malware as reported in this report by Dark Reading (be careful, dark reading is part of Sophos which has written the report and, of course, has software to help block ransomware). This attack is targetted at individuals as well as corporations.


    This link points to a security threat report which summarizes where we are at in terms of security concerns, and what's on the horizon.


    As we move towards digital everything, security and protection against threats has to become even more of a priority for corporations. It should be baked into projects and solution from the get go.


    Replay of the webinar

    Smarter, Shadier, Stealthier Malware: The Latest on Today’s Threats
    Duration: 60-minutes
    http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=733576&s=1&k=7E4EA0AFED59F439D02F295088C1C3FE

    Get a copy of the Sophs Security Threat Report 2014:
    http://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/security-threat-report.aspx

    A great very technical review of the solution, services and players in the cloud security market.

    Experts think it’s inevitable that sales of many non-perishable grocery categories will eventually take place online. Retailers need to meet that demand, but also the creative challenge of what to do with the space that it will open up in stores. Thom Blischok of Booz & Co. shared his ideas about “Tomorrow’s Trends Delivered Today: Store Design Trends — The Path to 2025” at a recent Food Marketing Institute conference, and then in an interview for this section.


    Today, 80% of the store is in merchandise, while 20% is accounted for by services, he said. Meanwhile 75% of capital investment dollars go to the store perimeter, while 15% is spent on center store, and 10% goes to the front of the store.

    “Recognizing that there is a movement to the Internet, becoming world-class at what you do on the perimeter and with services is critical,” Blischok said in an interview after he presented his concepts at the recent Food Marketing Institute Energy & Store Development Conference in Baltimore.


    Future store designs will have to account for certain center store categories moving online, which will result in much more available space in the store; decisions will have to be made about what to do with that space.


    Read More: 
    http://supermarketnews.com/store-design-amp-construction/future-online-sales-open-space-design-innovation#ixzz2r8V6f7B2

    I am a technology expert, not a retailer or a store designer. I've posted blog posts regarding this trend for a while now and find this article to provide some of the background information to indicate that store designs are changing as some of the purchase for commodity items move to online.


    Retailers must thus act to prepare for this.

    1. open eCommerce stores and ensure the process is seamless between online and in-store. Think how to digitize and integrate loyalty programmes, POS transaction data, mobile devices usage in store, etc.
    2. think of a simple customer experience where staples and regularly bought products move to eCommerce auto-replenishment, while store experience remains for added service and value


    See also

    • Amazon warehouse & operations and Apple stores trace the future of brick-n-mortar stores via @bi http://sco.lt/5pCgBl
    • Why Amazon Prime Could Soon Cost You Next to Nothing- More signs that Amazon is "flipping" the shopping model http://sco.lt/9CIq3N
    • Amazon Pantry to take on Costco- makes perfect sense in the big picture for Amazon via @usatoday http://sco.lt/6tuRY9
    • How digital made Nespresso possible- an in depth analysis of the business model via @BDoom http://sco.lt/75eN0L
    • Chart from @bcg help vizualize Amazon's long tail which leads to Digital’s Disruption of Consumer Goods and Retail http://sco.lt/6sBETh
    • What if Clay Christensen Is Right about the Grocery Business (and Amazon Is Wrong)? http://sco.lt/8mT8Mb
    • and others http://bit.ly/KFeAcU

    Apple is putting all the pieces together to disrupt mobile payment.


    Apple unveiled the first large-scale integration of iBeacon, a technology that, when coupled with their fingerprint identification system, may be another building block in building a revolutionary new payment system.

    iBeacon technology form Apple is being touted as a way to push localized advertisement. While this is true, payment may actually be the end goal and the most profound disruption.


    The post rightfully mentions that Apple and Amazon both have on file half a billion credit cards, which would make them very seamless solutions for wallet replacement. All retailers should now consider in their plans ways to support alternate forms of payments, especially ones tied to iPhones and iPads.


    Ned to learn to program - even if not as a job but only to understand how computers, phones, cars, etc. work - is definately worth it.

    Anticipate Customer Needs
    Your child is going away to college and needs all the basics. But who wants to pay airline baggage fees to transport pots, pans, sheets and towels? Bed Bath & Beyond took a multi-pronged approach to ensuring that students’ first days on campus carried all the comforts of home.

    In some locations, the home goods retailers set up pop-up stores on or near select college campuses. It also created a “Shop Here, Pick Up There” option, allowing students to choose what they wanted at a store close to home and pick up the packages at the location nearest their campus. Online, BB&B offered checklists and informational videos as well as a shopping option that allowed customers to choose the ship date.

    It was a smart strategy that paid off well. While NRF anticipated that back-to-college shopping would be down year-to-year in 2013, Bed Bath & Beyond closed out its second quarter ending August 31 with a 3.7 percent increase in same-store sales.

    20 different examples of companies that have leverage digital to transform the way they do business. Nothing earth shatering always good to have examples in mind when trying to convince a executive... ;-)

    The report provides a comprehensive 14 elements framework to guide the collaboration required to make corporations more cyber-resilient. In our world of 100M credit card stolen at Target and large-scale NSA spying activities, McKinsey suggests that this now become a priority on the CEO agenda.


    I argue when looking at the framework that many of the Enterprise Architecture tools and practices can be leveraged successfully to implement the framework. Moreover, as digital transformations become common place, the security aspects must be integrated from the get-go.

    Corporate use of social technologies is mainstream, though the pace of adoption has slowed. But companies can still take advantage of the untapped potential these tools have to transform their organizations and create significant value.


    A vast majority of respondents continue to cite business benefits,2 and the mix of enterprises where executives report higher-than-average benefits is consistent with last year. One-fifth of companies qualify as fully networked organizations (Exhibit 2), those reaping the highest improvements in benefits from their technology use with internal and external stakeholders,3 while the share seeing outsize benefits from internal company use (12 percent) remains small.4 Again, given the large amount of value that social technologies could create through internal use, there is significant room here for companies to grow.

    I've followed this survey since its inception in 2008 and I'VE always found it a great tool to convince executives of the business benefits - measurable - that social and collaboration bring to enterprises (termed enterprise 2.0).


    But now this one shows a slow down in the rate of adoption, which does not bode well for those yet in the undecided camp. Unfortunately, not networking your employees means you do not benefits from reduction in travel cost, reductions in communication costs, faster product development time-to-market and increased access to knowledge (to name only the most important benefits).


    More dangerous, the other half - your competitors - will benefit from them and thus you'll face increased competition for which you'll be ill equipped to handle. 


    See also:


    • @McKinsey demonstrates increase in speed and reduction in costs benefits for networked enterprises http://sco.lt/5EWOP3
    • Evolution of the networked enterprise: @McKinsey Global Survey results demonstrates measurable business benefits http://sco.lt/88jsW1 

    Retailers have been doing forecasting for a long time, predicting from previous sales and market conditions (and their best judgement), what to order for each one of their stores. When you have hundreds of stores, this is not a simple tasks, and it often requires years of experience - if you want to do it well. Because forecasting errors are very costly, resulting in lost sales or products that stay on shelves or racks and must be transferred to others stores, or worse, discounted at the end of the season.


    I've worked on systems - from simple excel spreadsheets to more complex applications - that automate the predictive aspect and provide tools to facilitate the forecasting process. But never were the tools using invidual client profiles  to make the prediction. They always used global store-level or regional sales numbers. 


    So, at least in theory, established retailers can have a leg up.


    But Amazon may (again) shock retailers into a digital transformation, bringing their individual client sales data into account when doing the forecast. This will require retailers to include individual customer transactions and possibly their "wish lists" and online search information, to include in your forecasts. Data is there but few reatilers have the systems or the integration to bring this data in a timely manner to the "forecasting team" desk.


    Amazon has been doing this with "replesnishment" options where they send you products on a regular schedule, so you don't have to "shop" for them: they come at your door at a predefined interval you control. And they give you rebates for sticking to your schedude (predictability is invaluable in a supply chain!).


    If you do, then your forecast will undeniably be better. If you don't companies like amazon, with lower overhead, will send your clients products before they even consider going to store to see what's on the shelves!

    Always must read from Capgemini.

    still relevant insight in 2014.

    More often than not, dropbox is the preferred cloud document storage provider. Given the recent 250M$ investment, they will become even more important as a digital solution. I thought this post provides a very useful summary o fdropbox features.

    1998 all over again?

    3M twitter followers for WholeFoods!

    Intelligent processes, enabled by digital technology, create a virtuous cycle of constant improvement fed by continuous feedback. And they are set to soon reinvent much of the way that businesses are run.


    • First, managers and workers alike need to adopt an experimental mindset and skills. A firehose of data won’t put out a fire if managers don’t know how to direct it. Managers and workers will need to get more comfortable using data to design experiments that lead to meaningful results.  They will also have to live by rules that appear exotic now—along the lines of Facebook’s admonitions to “move fast and break things” and “done is better than perfect.” They will need to reward experimentation and foster a culture that encourages resilience in the face of inevitable failures. Companies have a steep learning curve ahead of them.
    • Second, managers will have to recognize that their real value-added contribution will increasingly take the form of judgment rather than knowledge creation. Knowledge work won’t disappear completely. But much of what is currently referred to as knowledge work—the formulation of plans, completion of forms and coordination of data files—will soon be done by software guided by algorithms. What remains is judgment work: balancing opposing views and stakes, crafting a plan of action and making decisions. But judgment requires insight drawn from experience, and experience often involves a form of experimentation.
    • Third, managers and professionals (whether they are in engineering, medicine, marketing, business strategy or operations) will need to get accustomed to taking advice from machines. No one disputes the value of contextual knowledge and human judgment, but it is a limited perspective—being able to see only what’s out your own window—that has most often prevented managers from seeing and exploiting opportunities for great gain.
    • Finally, managers need to understand that the pursuit of intelligent processes is a choice. They can choose conventional approaches, but if they do, they shouldn’t expect the powerful results that can come from intelligent processes. Capturing the benefits of new technology will not be automatic.

    The article conclusions are very important to consider in all change management activities of a digital transformation. We must ensure that resources are comfortable with a new way to do things that may require skills they do not possess and that may clash with the way they have been brought to consider "knowledge work".

    Many other very useful insights in this infographics.

    Recruiting digital transformation is being forced by candidates, with the HR professionals largely staying behind and holding on to old ways. One read that may help provide data that candidates are going in another direction.

    more predictions...

    In a classic, well documented and diagrammed article, McKinsey provides some early warning signs that Moore's law may not hold for many years. Unless technology improvements carry it beyond 2020.


    Not a digital transformation paper per se but very powerful insight for those that believe improvements will trail after 2020.


    The microelectronics engineer in me loves this one!

    Presents a convincing case for investing in digital and viewing bank morph into many new models in the year 2020.

    Major trends in retail technology are illustrated with plausible scenarios and a roadmap. Useful reading with an executive.

    Useful insights especially #4 : enhance both online and in-store.

    No surprise here. Our own Quebec CEFRIO stated the same back in november. But this report is very detailed and provides some interesting insights.


    Also see

    New CEFRIO survey results- Quebec retailers continue to leave 75% of eCommerce retail $ to others #iceq http://sco.lt/58m2wD

    It is the trend season... ;-)

    It is the trend season... ;-)

    Any new system should be built from the ground up to support data being open - with proper controls as in the case of the consumer insight example given in the paper.

    This phone is not yet available and should be announced soon. Yet it offers a glimpse into the future: you want privacy, you'll have to pay for it. Otherwise they'll be plenty of free or subsidised phones to choose from.

    I selected this post as part of the digital transformation blog for multiple reasons

    1- #25 english is still not the preferred language for communications in Europe (at least not in twitter, and I expect this goes for Internet in general)

    2- #40 we still travel a lot for business : that could be reduced with proper use of videoconferencing and collaboration tools

    3- #35 in our digital era, most of Indian households do not have toilets. Much remains to be done in the non-digital world as well...

    4- as an architect I really appreciate how useful visualizations like these maps convey a lot of information (sometimes also very complex concepts) very quickly and simply. It inspires me in other parts of my work!

    30000 attendees and 4 days of conferences and showcases and only 30000 tweets in total (with only 13600 original tweets). Look at the retweets and top 8 are tweets from corporations the NRF itself. Goes to show how few attendees bothered to tweet during the show. 


    Is it because

    a) the conference was not popular (I doubt it, with 30K attendees)

    b) twitter is not appropriate to convey audience perceptions and news (would be a surprise as it is very much so in other events) or is it simply because

    c) retailers are not technology friendly and stil resort to email or pen-n-paper to capture and report on their conference highlights to their peers?


    I suspect c) to be the answer, to my dismay... No wonder Amazon is making a killing in the retail industry!

    Nothing more to add!

    The average starting salary for a Bachelor’s degree graduate in the United States in 2013 was $45,600, representing a 2.6 percent increase on 2012.

    I am surprised by this chart: engineering better pay than business. I always thought I went into engineering as a vocational discipline (ie. not for the pay). I guess this is changing.


    Less surprising when you consider the lack of skilled digital-friendly resources there are out there.


    Also, this is starting salary. 10-years later, business majors must be well above engineering ones, no?

    Benefits of having an Internet connected device - here a car - is that it can be remotely updated to fix issues or tune performance. Convenience and fast improvements.


    Remember that this means it can also be remotely monitored, both for good and bad reasons, which may also raise security and privacy concerns.

    This chart helps you visualize how much crowdfunding has blossomed in 2 years. it also highlights the risk for fraud. As the numbers of players and the amount of money grows, the potential for misleading sites will also grow.

    A good mashup of 2013 buzzwords and trends leading into 2014.

    This new index and the methodology that accompanies it can help shed light into ways the your company can better transform to digital.


    Let's say you are a retailer in a fairly traditional industry, with a great brand, lots of store locations, well trained employees and fine-tuned distribution logistics. How do you handle the transformation to eCommerce? although not innovative per se (heck opening an online store and selling online is easy if not trivial), you have to innovate in order to transform your existing business to support this new way of selling, without breaking your existing business. Actually you have to improve both and integrate them to be successful. 


    Large retailers such as Walmart have had great difficulty to do so, so much that they had to create new innovation units - called labs - to explore and innovate digitally without being bogged down by their existing 466B$ business.


    If you are faced with this dilemma then the index may provide you with valuable insight and reference points.

    Not often do I see such transparency into a business model and economics. I find that Andrew Youderian consistently produces very useful insights into his eCommerce business.


    I find this material to be at par with those provided by Fail Harder and reviewed here previously.


    Amazing overview of average margin earned by apparel distributors- can also be extended to other via @fail_harder http://sco.lt/96o67d

    This chart highlights a very important fact: "things" like cars, TVs, doorbells, refrigerators, baby monitors, etc. will all be Internet connected soon. This will mark a very important step in the digital transformation of enterprises: the ability to "google" device data to find out what they are doing now (and historically). 


    Similar to stock market charts, we'll start to find websites dedicated to providing raw data and analysis on that data. power of the web and big data will allow your individual device (say your heart monitor) to compare your data with that of similar devices and users worlwide to detect patterns, such as heart attack probability.


    In the corporate context, with an Internet connected fleet of delivery vehicles, it will be possible to analyze the efficiency of the fleet with comparable fleets, and even maybe compare drivers. This will pose interesting challenges for IT departments as they'll have to manage a flood of new data. We can however expect this data to be consolidated within fleet management solutions and software and sold as a service by those providers.

    This is the future of wearable technologies and offers a glimpse into the possibilities that digital offers. By monitoring heart rate, oxygen levels and other infant metrics, it provides parents with useful real time information. By harnessing and consolidating data from milllion of kids during their first days and months of their lives, it could unearth insights that are yet unknown. This is the real power that wearable tech promises.

    Hutchinson got his first taste of Tracking Point at last year’s CES. His feature about the company’s rifle, which assists the shooter with sighting a target, received massive attention from Ars readers as well as from other sites. The controversy of gun ownership played no small role in the wide readership, but the empirical importance and innovation is difficult to deny: a bevy of sensors come together to allow an inexperienced marksman to nail a target at 1,000 yards.

    Very scary thought came over me as I watched over the video in this posting: the next crazy shooter now has everything he needs to live-stream his killing on Facebook, YouTube or other. 

    When I first went about creating the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Buffer, there was something I kept very clear in my mind.

    When I came across Eric Ries and his work on the Lean Startup while working on my previous startup, I tried to read almost everything he had created and watch every presentation he had done. I found his presentation on the Minimum Viable Product and remember this answer to one of the questions from the audience:


    Most entrepreneurs’ instincts for what is the minimum viable product are like 10 times off. So, maybe you’re one of those rare entrepreneurs who has that gut instinct for creating an MVP, but just in case, just check out whether it’s possible that you could accomplish your strategy and learn something interesting with half the features, and maybe if you want to be really bold with half again, and just imagine: what would that look like for customers?

    Read the wikipedia of MVP and read this short post to get inspired to cut down on product features for your product or project. I believe it is the most difficult thing to do, like saying "no" to clients or employees.


    This is of particular importance during a digital transformation (not just when developing a product like buffer), as we often are exploring new solutions and thus do not know exactly what our users need. Digital allows us to easilly perform trial-and-error, as opposed to before when we had to build bridges or buildings and failure was not an option. We should leverage it.


    Digital also gives us tools to measure what happens, giving us insight not on what people "think" is a great feature but rather insight into what they "do", which is more powerful.


    I challenge you in applying MVP in your own world, whether when building a new eCommerce solution for your company to pave the way for new way to sell in your boutiques, or whether it is to recruit via LinkedIn instead of newspapers, or whatever.


    It is *very* difficult...

    We should always follow these 4 steps

    1. have a pin code lock on phone
    2. update passwords
    3. use complex passwords

    Now the concept of digital legacy and digital benificary are also worth considering.

    Provides useful visuals and some market research. Useful starting point.

    Not a digital transformation post per se, but applicable to all businesses, large or small.

    No wonder CMOs and CIOs are fighting over the same turf and soon CMOs will outspend CIOs in their field...


    Also see

    • Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending to Reach $3.8 Trillion in 2013- not including what CMOs spend on tech http://sco.lt/4ip6vZ
    • Five Years From Now, CMOs Will Spend More on IT Than CIOs Do via @forbes @gartner http://sco.lt/94liLp

    Been a long time since we've known this and it appears that this prediction is true.

    One of the many new lifelogging devices to come out, this out is interesting because it has no screen, is waterproof and connects to a phone. I would expect this means long battery life. Looks like an improvement over the fitBit I am wearing...

    Face it, this is also what "wearable tech" means... ;-)

    Explores some google glass apps that may become killer apps:

    • capturing images of your life, seamlessly
    • providing captions for hearing impaired
    • translating signs and other printed material

    Here are the actual slides that go along the BI story I posted earlier

    http://sco.lt/8Uy9xp


    In summary (remember BI focus is mobile so there is bias in their analysis):

    • mobile is still growing
    • mobile does not replace TV or desktop : people use multiple screens
    • digital ad revenue is huge and growing
    • prepare for a future made up of wearable and "intelligent devices"


    Nevertheless, still a useful reference for raw numbers and comparative charts.

    Stephen wolfram shows 20 years of quantified self and possibly a look in the future of work measurements.
    From one of the best visionaries of our time, this short post raises interesting questions,about the merge of quantified self and work. I smell opportunities here, as it has started to happen with insurance companies.
    I agree with those, do you?
    Think that wearables are freaky, consider ingestible sensors!
    2014 the year of wearable devices. Let's hope so!
    One of my starting points towards quantified (my)self.
    I've been thinking about going quantified on myself in 2014. This is the first of my inquiries in the field. I plan to do it on a personal standpoint, to know myself better. I also plan to explore how this May impact work in the future, both in positive (improved workers well being) and negative (big brother)...
    A reference I use all year long.
    Amazing stories that detail the software and hardware that NSA has developed to eavesdrop on computers, cell phones and networks. With links and images of the spying catalogue that contains solutions to break into iPhones and many others.
    Google glass are one year old and now stories account for true impact of his new technology. What I find interesting in this first hand account of using glass are- how akward it is to wear glass in public, even in a tech friendly work setting- how very basic the apps are but how useful heads up info is (maps, recipes, etc.)- how few business applications there are (most are entertainment related - huge opportunity for startups)- how smartphones will be replaced by glass in the long term!
    Google glass are one year old and now stories account for true impact of his new technology. What I find interesting in this first hand account of using glass are- how akward it is to wear glass in public, even in a tech friendly work setting- how very basic the apps are but how useful heads up info is (maps, recipes, etc.)- how few business applications there are (most are entertainment related - huge opportunity for startups)- how smartphones will be replaced by glass in the long term!
    Sad demonstration of the penetration of digital in all aspects of our life's, even warfare.
    A detailed explanation of how to purchase stolen credit cards online. Provides a very good look into the world of credit card fraud and security.

    (in french) mapping of grocery store pickup service (called "drive") in France for 2013. Amazing deployment considering that this trend started only in 2010 and now reaches 2655 and keeps growing.


    The service may be a sign of the future, offering bulky heavy items for pickup, keeping the cost of eCommerce delivery down. Also allows customers to "top off" their order themselves, selecting their tomatoes and meat themselves.


    The service is a sign of the times, with consumers finding eCommerce a solution for staple low cost items as well as high priced ticket items such as electronics. It marks a turning point for retailers, recently faced with showrooming and omni-channel, as they transform their stores to become more than glorified warehouses. Stores now are service delivery locations that must deliver a personalized experience.


    Technology becomes  essential, although it may be hidden from sight. Distribution logistics must also evolve from bulk cases distribution to individual, order fulfillment. Who leads the way in this? Amazon, with its leadership in eCommerce technology, fulfillment automation, and personalization.

    I rarely comment on news items but this one is special I think because it demonstrate what happens when social media makes a story go viral. Plus, this is going on now, live, and we don't know how it will end (but can have sad assumptions).
    I rarely comment on news items but this one is special I think because it demonstrate what happens when social media makes a story go viral. Plus, this is going on now, live, and we don't know how it will end (but can have sad assumptions).

    This is a fairly technical post that applies mostly to windows users.


    A great complement to

    The Scrap Value of a Hacked PC @BrianKrebs http://sco.lt/9Hiw8v

    Very good explanation of something that is very demanding in computing resources but that requires very simple, and relatively inocuous: cellular phone tower metadata.


    Also read this post for additional insights into the same matter:


    Astonishing Graphic Shows What You Can Learn From 6 Months Of Someone's Phone Metadata http://sco.lt/7shPsH

    What is most useful here is the opportunity for small and local businesses to leverage a large, well known brand like amazon (or Walmart, or another). This has been happening for years in other industries (electronics, books, etc.) and now food and CPG are finding their way into Amazon's amazing marketplace where shelf space is infinite and listing fees are small.

    Look at the diagram and read the post then follow the last link.

    The webcast is very interesting although the resulting slide deck is cryptic. It provides very useful link list at the end for anyone looking to followup on the infoSec 2013 year in review.


    Pretty scary if you ask me, the final word goes to Dan Geer saying "We are expanding the society-wide attack surface faster than we are expanding our (protection)"

    Very good insights on the latest eCommerce xmas craze.

    Target released a statement this morning confirming a breach, saying that 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, 2013.


    According to sources at two different top 10 credit card issuers, the breach extends to nearly all Target locations nationwide, and involves the theft of data stored on the magnetic stripe of cards used at the stores.

    What is interesting comes from the fact that the breach is not from eCommerce or online but rather in stores.

    Here's a good chart tweeted by analyst Ian Maude.

    He says, "Thinking about Twitter monetisation- ad revenue per user under 1/2 FB and 1/3 LinkedIn- lots of headroom for growth." And that's certainly one way to look at it.

    Another way to look at it is how insane Google's ad revenue per user is compared to other ad-supported web companies. This is what happens when you have a magic money machine called search ads. 



    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-ad-revenue-per-user-2013-12#ixzz2nxXpOjsm

    Wondering how Google can give GMail, Android, and all its other services for free? Well because each user is actually worth money to Google in that model. For the moment, most of this revenue is in the form of advertisement revenue. So no wonder they invest in self driving cars and robots: because in a self driving car what will passengers do? Browse the web, read emails, and, indirectly, view ads.

    Don't be misled by the title but read through the post. It provides a number of very useful links towards open technologies that may indeed transform businesses over the next few years. For those leaders out there, embrace them and you may have a strong differentiator.


    One example, Elance. An amazing site to find talent for short duration contracts. Need to translate documents, update a website, touch up images, etc. this is a great place to go to identify skills and price points when you prepare business case or business plans.

    A great short piece, must read for any marketing professional. This technology from may have a strong impact on Google's top line because so much email marketing relies on images, often small invisible ones, only present in emails to identify who reads what.

    I don't like the analysis as it makes it appears as if the web is being overtaken by hackers and impersonators. 


    What is interesting is the steady rise of non-human traffic. With a larger and larger number of devices being connected to the Internet - from cars to watches to refrigerators - we can expect this trend to continue in the years to come.

    Alone this sounds like the dummest idea on the planet: go compete on low cost, low margin, high volume, bulky and heavy products (read difficult to ship) against the lowest price market leaders (Costco, Sam's). True in isolation.


    Step back and consider those facts:

    1- Amazon does not have retail stores, but is building warehouses close to its customers to reduce delivery costs

    2- You can only do #1 when you have volume

    3- How do you build volume? staples, stuff that people order on a regular basis

    4- Amazon has a Prime programme where delivery is free for a yearly membership

    5- Amazon is build Fresh to deliver groceries to home - easy to tag Pantry products in the same vans - additional cost in marginal

    6- Amazon has a very successful replenishment programme - and what do you replenish most? pantry items!


    After careful consideration, Amazon Pantry makes perfect sense, doesn't it?!

    This report by Capgemini raises important concerns regarding the very low usage of digital technologies by HR professionals. This is in sharp contrast with the data that proves the usefulness of digital tools in the recruitement and talent management in general.


    Unfortunately, I believe HR is plagged with two problems that prevent these problems from being addressed rapidly


    1- HR is a support process and thus considered a cost center. To that end, investments into new technologies that may help to improve the candidate recruitment process to bring higher quality candidates is often not approved because of the difficult to demonstrate a hard number ROI


    2- HR professionals pushback against digital technologies and the required business process transformation it requires. It is indeed often difficult to have HR professionals turn to crowdsourcing and social network interactions (ie. spending a lot of time in front of a computer to roam linkedIn and facebook and other networks to source and qualify candidates) rather than spending time doing phone and in-person interviews. This will change with younger generations and millenial but one should not minimize the pushback they may receive and plan for adequate and important change management.


    As you can gues, I've been down that road a few times! ;-)

    Here’s what you’ll find at howtogomo.com:

    • See what your customers see.  Enter a website address into the GoMoMeter and see what your site looks like on a mobile phone.  The GoMoMeter will analyze your site and give you customized recommendations on how to make your site more mobile friendly.  You can even download a free customized report!
    • Learn about why mobile matters:  Cool infographics and the latest data will help you learn more about mobile trends and why mobile-friendly sites really matter.
    • Get inspired by great examples: Look at the mobile sites of businesses who are doing it right and learn how to make your site better with our ten mobile site best practices.
    • Find a mobile site builder who can help: Check out our list of mobile site developers who can help you build your mobile website.

    Useful website to help businesses evaluate how "mobile friendly" their website is and then understand what can be done to improve it.


    With signs that users are turning to mobile (iPhone, Android, tablets) for browsing and shopping online this appears to be a must have for any business that has a face online.


    Unfortunately most of the tools have been removed from the site but I find the Get started and the Resources and Articles particularily useful

    http://lecfomasque.com introduction to BI, dashboard and business KPIs

    (in french) a good overview of excel dashboards and what they should contain. This one focusses on sales dashboards but you can replace sales with pretty much any business unit and the presentation remains relevant.


    Does not dive into technical details but other presentations by Sophie provide amazing insights. Very useful.

    Yesterday, Apple began a small press push on its new iBeacon technology, pushed an Apple Store app update to support them and turned the feature on in 254 U.S.-based storesin an initial rollout. According to the details we know so far, some Apple stores may have as many as 20 iBeacons deployed, depending on the size.


    This isn’t Apple rolling out beacons in a few of its stores. It’s Apple rolling out potential beacons in every store that has an iPad — and there are hundreds of thousands already out there. Now, when a retailer makes a decision about tablet kiosks or signage, they’ve got the incentive of a hyperlocal advertising or customer-service system built right in.

    Lest we forget about Apple being a hardware company: This is going to end up selling an absolute ton of iPads.

    iBeacon appears to be nothing more than a local advertisement solution (thanks to this slideshare presentation on demystifying iBeacon by FBrunel) and thus should not gather any personal information or invade privacy. From what I hear in this paper, this will remain the job of the iPhone/iPad app! ;-)


    Moreover what is interesting is the fact that iOS devices can become iBeacon transmitter, allowing stores that have already deployed iPads as mere passive display devices to now become active local advertisement solutions. Combined with an adeuqate app (that knows who you are and what you do and what you like) would become the ultimate in personalized in-store pricing. 


    Think of it this way: as you prepare to exit the Best Buy store after browsing all the way to the back of the store in the laptop section, you receive an add for an extra 5% discount if you buy the laptop you spent 15 minutes looking at while you were there.


    I think this opens some interesting possibilities...

    At 200$ this is not for everyone, especially considering the poor lifespan one can expect out of these devices. Nonetheless, the gadget is interesting to get an idea of current state of miniaturization. Being able to cram display, battery, bluetooth and conductive charging into something that small is quite amazing and a sign that wearable devices will get further into mainstream in the coming years.

    This review now dates back to 2010 so it is a bit out of date but I can assure you that the situation is as bad today as it way then. There is no free lunch: access to great free mobile apps comes because we allow them to gather and access our information. Plain and simple.


    Also consider looking at this post:


    MyPermissions website helps monitor which app access your account on google, facebook, twitter via @gigaom http://sco.lt/7Id2ZN 

    More people are letting app makers access their Google accounts — MyPermissions expanded to provide instant notifications when a new app asks for data.


    MyPermissions, a site that offers a handy dashboard of all the apps that are burrowing into your social media accounts, expanded the features it offers on Tuesday to alert users when an app asks for data from Gmail, Google Calendar and a suite of other Google services.

    I just learned about this website. I like it because it surfaces information that is available but may be buried a little too deep into the settings and account management pages of our favorite tools. 


    I like it because it simplifies my life by surfacing the information from multiple sources in a single location. Similar to this one


    Erase Yourself From the Internet With JustDelete.me via @mashable http://sco.lt/7NpszR


    Finally it is a reminder that the web interconnects our different profiles and the tools we use. This is great (because it allows me to remember fewer passwords) and provides tremendous value by connecting different apps together. However, we may loose a bit of privacy as we do this. Just have to remember that.

    A good overview of technologies requires to have a digital business, with key insights from leaders at Capgemini.

    How can brick and mortar retailers compete with this level of automation when they must support real estate and HR costs?


    They can

    1- invest in similar automation (but onlny if they have volume to scale) for comparable products in their online operations

    2- provide an in-store experience that is fully linked with the online information: order picked and return in store, value added services in stores (training, support, etc.)

    3- embrace local and niche products from small businesses to bring unique personalized products and solutions to shoppers


    Anything else?

    Here are five 2013 CDO facts that might interest you.

    • CDO Fact #1     There are over 100 chief data officers (carrying that actual  job title) – serving in large enterprises today. That’s more than double the number we counted in 2012.
    • CDO Fact #2    Banking, Government and Insurance are the top 3 industries for Chief Data Officers –  in that order. However we are now seeing other industries rising.
    • CDO Fact #3    65% of Chief Data Officers are in the United States. 20% are in the UK.  There are now CDOs in over a dozen countries.
    • CDO Fact #4    Over 25% Of all Chief Data Officers are in New York or DC.  It’s a regulatory catalyzed trend – at least in the early stages.
    • CDO Fact #5    Over 25% of Chief Data Officers are women.  In case you are wondering -  that’s almost twice as high as for CIOs (13%)

    3 examples of companies you would not expect to be impacted so much by technology: Argos, Marlborough and CocaCola.


    Along the same lines as 

    Every Industry Will be Digitally Remastered- every product/service will be revolutionized @MarkRaskino @gartner http://sco.lt/6EV9kn

    If you carry a cell phone, then you are being tracked.


    Along the same lines:


    NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say via @washingtonpost http://sco.lt/5z0Es5


    Astonishing Graphic Shows What You Can Learn From 6 Months Of Someone's Phone Metadata http://sco.lt/7shPsH

    Got this reference from my friends at CloudOps. 


    If you are unfamiliar with the term ITaaS (as  I was until recently) then there are very interesting blog posts by Leverhawk that you may read.


    This one I picked because it strikes me as a well balanced guidance for IT groups that want to offer their services as ITaaS.

    Not sure I would feel comfortable getting operated by a machine remotely controlled from India but the digital transformation of the supply chain and manufacturing in organizations should bring this technology to healthcare.

    There is so much to say on this topic and I've written about it numerous times before and recently.


    1. Race Against the Machine: Andrew McAfee at TEDxBoston http://sco.lt/84lu8P 
      Andrew McAfee was well known for coining the term "Enterprise 2.0" where he foresaw how social networks would transform the enterprise. Of course, social networks have an indirect effect on business top- or bottom-line. Being from move his insight into more "Core" or mission critical aspects of the organization. So he moved to the supply chain where, if you apply technology right, so can have a profound and rapid impact on the company's profit or market share or leadership. This is the purpose of his current work
    2. New magazines focusses on supply chain digital transformation via @capgemini @didiebon http://sco.lt/8f8beD 
      Digital Transformation- We Haven't Seen Anything Yet: 3 min video worth watching via @capgemini http://sco.lt/5YVBnV 
       McAfee now works closely with Capgemini and this collaboration has led to research on digital transformation that is truly amazing (#1 in my digital transformation reference list). It provides hard data regarding the current state of digitization in corporations and some great examples of companies that have started their digital transformation.
    3. Real-life Solutions that can be developed with @Grok http://sco.lt/5eUgCn 
      Finally the idea that robots and automation are around the corner and that the next 10 years will bring so much more than what we expect can be traced back to the book the Singularity is Near which provides a compelling case for this exponential growth. I reference here work where technology now provides tools to perform human-like processing using simple algorithms based on the brain architecture.
    4. Remote manipulation demonstrated by @mit via @MartinLessard (great french blogger in #mtl #lasphere) http://sco.lt/9MvWZl 
      Finally I like the reference to the surgeons that perform tele-medecine. We often think of robots as being machines that perform repetitive tasks that eliminate humans from the equation. Although this may be true in certain cases (car manufacturing or the Google self-driving cars for example), in the short term there is much greater opportunities in enhancing human interactions and providing telepresence than there is in replacing humans. This is most probably what most of us will see in the next 10 years.

    (in french but video from MIT in english)

    Quite amazing telepresence opportunities in this video.


    I also wanted to bring forward the work of Martin Lessard in his blog and the Radio Canada radio programme La Sphère which does an amazing job at bringing digital technology news to the Montreal public every week. 

    A whole magazine focussed on digital transformation in the supply chain. Must read.

    Trends is clear: study in tech and you'll have a job in the future. Also charts that show healthcare, governments and other growth industries.

    I had read about this back in 2010 and use this examples in my presentations regarding security and the future of digital transformations. Everything digital should be design with protection in mind because it will be hacked.


    Also see other posts you may have missed:

    • Flying hacker contraption hunts other drones to control them- proof we are in a "digital far west era" via @ars http://sco.lt/8v5ATB
    • How your movements create a GPS 'fingerprint'- anonymous data is not enough to ensure privacy http://sco.lt/5KfaiX
    • Hacker Shows How To Attack An Airplane's Systems--Using A Phone http://sco.lt/97hSPx
    • NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say via @washingtonpost http://sco.lt/5z0Es5


    SkyJack works by monitoring the media access control (MAC) addresses of all Wi-Fi devices within radio range. When it finds a MAC address belonging to a block of addresses used by Parrot AR.Drone vehicles, SkyJack uses the open-source Aircrack-ng app for Wi-Fi hacking to issue a command that disconnects the vehicle from the iOS or Android device currently being used to control and monitor it. Operators of the flying hacker drone are then able to use their own smart device to control the altitude, speed, and direction of the hijacked drone and to view its live video feeds.

    This new system would not have gotten much publicity had it not been the perfect timing to come out at the same time that Amazon starts speaking of sending deliveries in 30min via flying drones.


    Nevertheless it is a clear demonstration that we live in a "digital far west era": no rules, open country, first to come and set its flag into an area becomes owner, and the right to bear arm, to defend yourself, because there is no implicit or explicit community protection. It is every man for itself. That is the digital era we live in and it let's the best and the worst come out.


    This "drone hack" is a kind reminder that, as developers, engineers, software developers or any digital field expert, you must assume that your device or application will be

    1. internet connected
    2. open for attack by hackers

    I am sure that this was far from the minds of the Parrot developers, back in 2007-8-9-10 when they were designing their drones in labs. Never would they have imagined that their design would be distributed in 500K+ volume and thus become target of those hacks. Well, they should have.


    Same applies to designers of the tire pressure sensors in cars. Should they have conceived their system to prevent hacking, as they were designed in an era where the Internet was in full use (circa 2005)? The answer is maybe.


    But today, the answer must be YES for all and any new device or solution.

    Digital transformation often comes in the form of innovation, which clashes with internal processes and the people that run them. It is my experience that innovation is a difficult thing to do in most organizations, which often turn to the creation of external groups called "labs" that are tasked with innovation without the constraints of the corporation that has spawned them. Companies like Walmart, Target and Nordstrom (see below) have done it.


    This post from Hinchcliffe provides interesting insight into how to build an open innovation capability within your organization.


    Also read:

    • Nordstrom Innovation Lab video shows how rapid experimentation should be done #mustwatch http://sco.lt/9KCibx
    • Walmart Labs’ Subscription Snack Service Goodies.co Will Shut Down via @TechCrunch http://sco.lt/7D4jjN
    • Retailers open "labs" to safely pilot their digital transformation via @mercuryNews http://sco.lt/7MY493 

    Difficult to think of digital transformation without implementing an enterprise collaboration platform. This is a list of the major players in the market.

    Needle is part of a new set of solutions and companies that provide tools, technologies and services to help retailers enter the world of "fan sourcing" or "curated commerce".


    The concept is simple: there is too much offering on the web and it is difficult to decide what to buy online, even with enhanced descriptions, high definition pictures, reviews and ratings. This due in part because we have come to not trust them, and in part because we rely on recommendations from people we know or from experts, rather than the promotion marketing material that brands and retailers prepare.


    This is what needle appears to provide. It facilitates the creation of a network of "advocates" that can speak to your potential customers and inform them on the products you have to sell and determine which is best for your customer. One on one, personalized shopping.


    OK in reality they are pimped-up sales reps, paid when they sell you a product. Nothing new here. But the way in which they sell, online rather than in store, may mean that shopping for a TV on amazon wesbite tomorrow will feel a lot more like going to a Best Buy store today.

    What else can I say?

    Hope you find them useful

    I love the way they made their prediction by using google trends. Smart. Happy to see that digital transformation is growing in popularity but surprised how recent the term is (I thought it had been around for a long time).

    I see a downside from having showrooms attached to warehouses.


    Distribution centers are often located in areas convenient for distribution (low real estate costs, proximity to highways, etc.) but not so much in prime real estate where consumers go to browse. I am sceptical  of the model, not sure it scales and I do not expect amazon to open a showrooms next to each of its warehouses.


    However, the need to see and feel and touch products in certain categories (cars, electronics, food, etc.) will scream for showrooms in the future, along the lines of previous posts I wrote such as this one:


    Amazon warehouse & operations and Apple stores trace the future of brick-n-mortar stores via @bi http://sco.lt/5pCgBl

    I find the critical areas they highlight interesting.

    Here is my take on it:

    1. Data security must become a board topic: security and privacy should be board topics, with data being one aspect of it. Or sliced the other way around, digital technologies should be a board topic, data being one aspect of it. No matter, this should be an area of focus that is tracked by internal auditors.
    2. Data security must be handled holistically across functions: absolutely. Where I come from (capgemini enterprise architecture), security was like governance and spawned across business, data, applications and technology domains.
    3. Data security should be thought of as leveraging a risk-based approach: I agree, you must understand and evaluate security risks to mitigate them

    6 min video that should inspire digital pioneers working in large organizations that keep fighting their way to introduce eCommerce, cloud computing, social networks, crowdsource in their orgranization in order to find new ways to recruit employees, provide better customer support, improve supply chain, etc.

    Very good strategic and tactical insight to help you leverage enterprise social technologies. The use case approach I find very useful because it helps define clear, actionable activities that employees can apply in their day-to-day work, instead of simply letting people figure out what can be done with generic tools.

    This study demonstrate what we feel here in Canada: we are lagging behind on eCommerce and have a good growth potential, larger than the US and most western european countries.

    Home Depot Registers 50% Rise In Digital Sales.


    the company upgraded its Web and mobile sites, including refreshing category pages and simplifying the checkout process. That helped lead to double-digit gains in traffic and conversion rates in the quarter.

    In addition, Blake said Home Depot also made improvements to the mobile devices for its sales devices, allowing them for the first time to process buy-online and pick-up in-store orders directly from their devices without having to use a terminal.

    Speaking at an industry event earlier this year, Home Depot CMO Trish Mueller highlighted the increasing mobile investments the retailer is making to help link online and offline shopping. Its primary app, for example, features an interior map for each of its 2,000 stores, along with voice-activated assistance, a barcode scanner and detailed product information.

    Look at the R&D spending chart from china and brace yourself for a killer economy in the 2020s.

    *** website URL has changed!

    See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szr0ezLyQHY

    Or checkout the new homepage: https://www.nordlab.co/ 


    Absolute must watch for anyone interested in innovation and rapid prototyping. The video shows how the team has developed an ipad app in one week by setting up shop in one of their stores and rapidly iterating over a simple application with real live customer to get instant feedback.


    Contrast this with the typical way things are done in organizations and you'll see why setting up "labs" is an essential step of innovation.

    I find this post by Ben Horowitz and this article on musk and jobs on cnn money both very inspiring and somewhat related. They both make passion the center of work, the sole purpose that leaders must have.


    I have not seen this much, maybe because it is immensely difficult to achieve when real world knocks in - investors, sales, vague requirements or exploring a completely new field where there are non recognizable landmark. 

    Pretty clear message her from Capgemini: consider automation of back-office (ie. not customer facing) activities in banks (hey, this applies elsewhere by the way!) can generate massive cost savings (and reduction in processing time).


    Not surprisingly, this is not a technology only solution but rather a people-process-technology-business combination. As usual!


    For those in need of a quick fix, have a look at the infographics instead: http://bit.ly/1c8Hr33

    Over the holiday break, I was finally able to spend some time cranking through some updates to the E-Commerce Financial Model for Startups for all of you startup nerds! There are loads of updates to tell you about.  The updates fall into three sections: 1. Model Updates 2. User Guide Updates 3. Additional Goodies for the package.

    Another amazing source of material from Matt Carroll, this time on eCommerce models. his insights are part of an ebook that I recommend and this blog post provides additional information and updates. Thank you Matt!

    In October, IBM released a report from their Institute for Business Value titled Analytics – A Blueprint for Value. IBM releases these reports on a periodic basis, and this one is focused on the growing importance of analytics to business success. Through their analysis, they came up with nine levers that represent the sets of capabilities that most differentiated leaders exhibit:

    1. Culture: Availability and use of data and analytics within an organization
    2. Data: Structure and formality of the organization’s data governance process and the security of its data
    3. Expertise: Development of and access to data management and analytic skills and capabilities
    4. Funding: Financial rigor in the analytics funding process
    5. Measurement: Evaluating the impact on business outcomes
    6. Platform: Integrated capabilities delivered by hardware and software
    7. Source of value: Actions and decisions that generate results
    8. Sponsorship: Executive support and involvement
    9. Trust: Organizational confidence

    Nespresso has grown into a powerhouse by leveraging the digital tools: eCommerce website, community, third party logistics, etc. Yes it oepns stores for the experience and the product feel. But it also leverages the digital tools to grow into a huge business with little overhead.


    Wondering how the business model canvas can be leveraged? Here is a great example.

    Simply amazing paper that describes so well the different fulfillment models. Essential read for any eCommerce professional... and who isn't in this day and age? ;-)

    McKinsey lays down actions that forward thinking retailer should apply to survive the digital transformation. They include:

    • leverage multi-channel to expand (and thus grow) revenue and profit;
    • cut costs (as digital business are often leaner);
    • reduce real estate (I wrote about that already - physical stores are here to stay but must transform as digital help push certain distribution activities towards eCommerce)
    • leverage digital (data and analytics) for decision making (not looking back but looking forward)
    • rethink assortments and product offering (with Future Shop now selling vitamins and food supplements, I guess all retailers must do that as well!)


    Interesting diagram that shows all the business capabilities that are affected by the digital world.

    Listen to the short video to understand how it works. Sounds quite amazing: one credit card that replaces up to 8. Wow. 


    They do not replace the "chip" cards, only the magnetic strip ones. But it may transform payment... or at least slim down your wallet.

    2.3B$ in technology to try and increase its online sales (now at 2% of 73B) is proof of the need by retailers to transform their ways or disappear. Then again Target used to let Amazon run its website.


    In a recent article for MIT’s Technology Review, I argue that Amazon is approaching retailing as an engineering problem — not as the old-fashioned domain of inspired hunches and showmanship. After all, Amazon doesn’t have three crucial ingredients of a traditional store: showrooms where customers can touch the goods; onsite salespeople to talk up the wares, or an ability for customers to take purchases home with them instantly. As a result, I wrote, “everything that Amazon’s engineers create is meant to make these fundamental deficits vanish from sight.”

    A glimpse into some of the reasons why amazon may in the future be known more for disrupting physical stores than for leading the eCommerce revolution.


    In a nutshell, Amazon works hard to make the traditional brick and mortar store irrelevant, which in turn will force traditional retailers into doing two things:

    1- embrace eCommerce, and remove all the non value adding aspects from the physical stores (replenishment, staple items, etc.)

    2- transform the physical stores to make them useful again, probably with a focus on some of the aspects where Internet has limitations: showrooming electronics, cars, etc., or educating customers on ways to use their products, making recipes in grocery stores or training newbies on new iPads.


    By the way, this is exactly what is now happening at Walmart and other retailers.


    Also see this

    Amazon warehouse & operations and Apple stores trace the future of brick-n-mortar stores via @bi http://sco.lt/5pCgBl

    Major win. With this finally we'll be able to leverage google to search within books. This will also, over time, bring to the digital world all the books that have been printed but will never be edited digitally.


    AFAIK, google also uses this to improve its google translate accuracy. And I assume other as well. 


    This win also is a major step for user privacy: it means that the web is not a free for all place where anyone can do anything. With proper rules, we can leverage digital without leaving on the table copyrights. I believe this will also be true for personal information and privacy. Over time.


    One small step for google, a giant leap for mankind!

    I've been writing about this trend of same-day or next-day delivery, making the point that most customers are not willing to pay for same-day delivery but that affordable or free next-day delivery could make inroads into brick-and-mortar business, forcing them to transform the way they sell and what they sell.


    7-day a week delivery is part of this essential service that a store-less, online pure play must make if it wants to fight without opening physical stores. 

    I find this post and the one it refers to by Christine Outram to capture full well some of the issues we have with technology and the people that architect and design the solutions, applications and software.


    I am personally guilty of some if not most of the rants in this paper but I try, I try real hard, to change. And listen to people and speak in their language...

    This informative but shallow post (as is often the case with BI.com) nevertheless made me realize how much amazon warehouse and fulfillment process will transform physical stores in the future.


    No more will we go to stores for the mundaine and the repetitive shopping (replenish peanut butter or buy a computer cable). We will go to stores for the "experience": we will be entertained, trained, or pampered. Visit an Apple store today and you'll get my point. You do not go there to buy a cable (this can be done online) but you go to see a new product, try it, get help and explanation from the genius bar or get insight from sales persons. The store is small and already has the highest sales per square feet of any store in the US


    What does this mean for brick-n-mortar retailers? Move all the non-value-adding sales real estate (all those middle aisle with shelves full of non-descript low margin products) to online eCommerce store (with low cost fulfillment and delivery/pickup), then transform the freed-up store aisles into customers-focussed training, entertaining, pampering, etc. areas.


    This represents a huge challenge for organizations as they will need to transform their merchandising, store operations, marketing, HR, etc. into a digital world (customers will expect online and in-store experience to be seamless) where customer service will become more important (sales clerks will need to know more about their products and not only be shelf stocking low paid employees).


    Fun times ahead!

    This post is a reference to different EA deliverable sample documents that I find useful. I've just updated it to be more specific about NIH deliverables and added references to the US FEA models.

    This page presents some solutions that can be built on top of Grok, a new service that will be demonstrated in 2 days at the Amazon re:invent conference


    I believe there are many more applications that those listed here. In Retail, for eCommerce prediction and fraud prevention. In Finance, for anomaly detection in the price of stocks or fasat changing data. Medical applications, weather applications, etc. etc.


    For those like me that were impressed with the book "On Intelligence" and are fans of the theory behind "Singularity is near", then this feels like another small but major step in the direction of intelligent machines.

    This is detailed explanation of the algorithm that powers Grok, a new service that will be demonstrated in 2 days at the Amazon re:invent conference.


    This is not easy reading but well worth the effort for those like me that were impressed with the book "On Intelligence" and are fans of the theory behind "Singularity is near", then this feels like another small but major step in the direction of intelligent machines.


    Follow links in the grok website to the CLA algorithm whitepaper which presents the geeky version of this algorithm.

    A very high level introduction and review of the work that led to Grok, a new service that will be demonstrated in 2 days at the Amazon re:invent conference


    For those like me that were impressed with the book "On Intelligence" and are fans of the theory behind "Singularity is near", then this feels like another small but major step in the direction of intelligent machines.

    Very useful survey of teens usage of Internet, social media and other digital technologies. They are, after all, digital natives, and looking at their behaviour may  show a little of what the future holds. Full of useful stats.


    Thank you Diane Nault for the link!

    Not sure if this technology works but it sure sounds interesting. Not having to rely on coupons or price breaks to improve conversion sure sounds nice. The idea of digging through data to identify reasons why shoppers leave (such as return issues) and presenting them with messages that help sounds a lot like what a sales person will do in a physical store. Hmmm...

    This article shows very clearly how NSA and other government agencies have tapped into unencrypted links within companies (here Google but I expect they also did at other major providers. If they do it in the States, then they do it in other countries too. Fact of life.


    I am a digital optimist. I think that we will be OK with both a) regulation to control information privacy as well as b) strong encryption for all data both in transit as well as in storage. Won't solve all issues but certainly will get us closer to safety and privacy we expect. I don't bellieve we should fall into the pessimistic view and stop using the cloud...

    Very simple 4 steps that can be done using free or very low cost tools:

    1. be online
    2. share content
    3. measure everything
    4. optimize

    Sounds like a great niche. And everything an online commerce should be: well defined audience, real need, (rules, regulations, families not being inside, inmates not being outside, etc.), and long-term customers (in certain cases).


    Makes me think of those special orders flown into northern territories from stores in the "South" where products are cheaper and airfare, in bulk, less expensive than the many intermediaries in typical retail.

    I have not seen so many papers and articles regarding online grocery shopping since the late 1990s when webvan was a big thing. And the angle remains the same (everyone needs to eat, the market is huge, just 1% is enormous, etc. etc.).


    There is a huge difference however: now the Internet is real. With Peapod getting 30% of its orders from mobile, Ocado fulfilling 180K orders per week (yes per week), there may be now the right conditions to make online grocery a reality. We should know soon enough.


    The real question is raised  here as well: what will be the role of brick and mortar grocery stores? Certainly they will remain but for what? High end and niche products, where low-cost staples get delivered from a warehouse (who needs to see the peanut butter before you buy)? Recipe demonstrations and culinary tips, with a focus on hands-on experience and expert recommendations? Where will technology fit in all this? 

    Great way for brick and mortar retailers with a known brand to leverage the Internet by creating marketplaces and act as an online "magnet" for consumers that go to their site to find everything they're looking for, often bypassing Google.


    This is what has been happening at Amazon for past few years, Amazon being top destination for searches related to books, videos, and other related items. Easy to understand when you consider Amazon has 600K SKUs in its warehouses but over 8M in its online catalog!

    Must read article by Nicholas Carr, who have us many good and insightful reads, from "IT doesn't matter" which made the case for cloud computing, to "Is google making us stupid?".


    This new piece presents in very simple terms examples of our loss of expertise due to delegation of tasks to computers.In a recent conference I gave to surgeons, it is clear how much of their work is now being computer controlled but how little knowledge they have of computers or of digital field in general. Highly skilled and trained, the push for automation and productivity will certainly make them susceptible to the perils that Carr presents in this paper.


    With my kids now learning to drive I can also see a future where they will not have had time to develop their driving skills sufficiently before google cars provide them with automation that let's them read emails and finish reports instead of driving their cars during morning commute. I can also see them not being prepared to take over the wheel when something happens with the automated controls.


    Worth considering when I design new software systems: how can I keep operators involved? Is augmented reality and assistance to humans better than full automation?

    Looks like subscription models from online retailers have limitations. Or is it because walmart has failed to deliver the products people really are looking for?

    L’Indice du commerce électronique au Québec (ICEQ) a interrogé chaque mois, d’août 2012 à juillet 2013, 500 adultes de 18 ans et plus ayant réalisé au moins un achat sur Internet au cours du mois précédant chaque collecte.

    • 5 662 cyberacheteurs sondés
    • 13 576 transactions analysées
    • 2 273 sites transactionnels utilisés

    An essential snapshot of Quebec's eCommerce market and maturity was presented this morning. Results are clear: retailers in Quebec are  leaving 75% of the retail spend $ go to other Canadian and US retailers. Apaling!

    Always fun to read these predictions... 2 years later! ;-)

    I have yet to put those reference designs / architectures to the test but the enterprise architect in me finds it a good thing when I find patterns like that!

    The presentation I gave at the annual meeting of surgeons this weekend. In french but I think someone should be able to get the gist of it nevertheless.

    I'll spend 90 minutes with 40 surgeon specialists tomorrow to show them what being digital means today and what the future may hold. I look forward to stimulating discussions as we look at how digital is transforming

    - their lives

    - their businesses (doctors are becoming business man)

    - their security

    - their personal information (and health data)

    - every object around us


    I will publish some of my slides after but already some background reading material is ready as a flipboard magazine here 

    http://bit.ly/17ah9OB

    This is one post of a series on "going paperless". Provides useful tips and techniques to get rid of all papers in your life. Targetted at the freelance/consultant/small business, I believe it should also make corporations (or certain departments) think about using simple cloud tools to capture knowledge in a simple way.


    Of course, this uses evernote but other tools can be used as well. Personnally I do similar things using google drive.

    GReat news for Montreal to be recognized in the digital world.

    Nice to see companies eating their own dog food. Interesting stats and some guidance, although limited.

    Sometimes this chart helps me understand why things are slow or why they are picking up. This is for USA, would love to see Canada and Quebec. I assume much less dramatic.

    Présenté aujourd'hui par moi et Sébastien René.

    Good summary of online marketing activities and their possible return

    Makes sense that in a country where trains are plentiful and run on time that you'd be able to pick up groceries ordered online at leshop.ch. Looks like you won't be able to buy ice cream that way, but that makes perfect sense!

    I continue to be amazed by the lack of proper passwords being used by people in general.


    This study is recent but I assume things may change quite rapidly and solutions such as lastpass or password box are helping change this trend.


    Also I assume this applies well to the USA but may be different in Canada, Quebec and elsewhere due to differences in language and culture.

    I will introduce 5-step value chain for eCommerce to help companies structure their eCommerce projects and align business objectives with people, process and technologies required to be successful.


    See you there? http://bit.ly/1c4AS40

    I find interesting how Capgemini has placed digital marketing in opposition to traditional marketing. Implicit to this infographics is the need for CMOs to question where they spend their marketing budget. It may be time to start and transfer some of the traditional budgets from traditional (print, tv, etc.) into digital, in order to 

    1. reach customers where they are (they are leaving tv and print for online)
    2. gather new analytics to measure what works and what does not (try to do that with print or tv)
    3. adapt the content to personalize it (very difficult or expensive to do in traditional)

    Most Customer Relationship Management or CRM implementations are governed by an incomplete vision, one that is far too internally focused, and as a result, they are quietly failing to live up to their potential.


    • The reach CRM of must be dramatically expanded to new populations of users who interact with the customers. “It is ridiculous to limit CRM to sales. In my view, every clerk walking the floor of a store, every customer service rep, every repair technician, receptionists – essentially everyone that interacts with a customer should have a view of the customer provided by CRM. Through our research we believe that for every user of CRM, there are at least 25 customer-facing individuals not using CRM, but they should,” said Augustin. “It’s not just about upselling, but about how to make the customer happier.”

    Just goes to say how important system integration is within an organization.


    Solutions such as CRM or SFA (but also ERPs, eCommerce, and many others) that can pull information from all the sources that an organization has about its clients, from inside (field service, customer support, etc.) and from the outside world (linkedIn, twitter, websites and more), is essential. 


    This requires an enterprise strategy and architecture around the client data, which most do not have yet. This is the real challenge.

    A new method of targeting ads, I find it interesting as it can also be put forward by retailers that do not yet sell online. They could, for example, leverage their POS transaction data along with loyalty card information to identify products their customers have bought (or failed to buy, such as extra cables for electronics baskets or produce for grocery baskets), and then display ads online to help drive conversion of other. 


    Of course this requires a close tie between operational systems (typically controlled by IT dept) and marketing systems (typicall not under the IT dept control). Should make for very interesting priorization debates... ;-)

    Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, is an inspired choice by Apple CEO Tim Cook to run its retail and online businesses. She could become the change that changes Apple and be a future CEO candidate. Or fail spectacularly.


    A few weeks ago I read an interview with her and realized how deep and intrinsic digital was to Burberry’s future. She told the interviewer:


    Now, everybody is a digital customer, so doing things digitally is no longer a niche [play]. Doing things digitally is how the entire world communicates. That’s our language today. Digital is not an afterthought. Our design teams design for a landing page and the landing page dictates what the store windows will look like, not the other way round. In creative media, they’re shooting for digital, then we are turning it back to physical. We knew every pound we spent digitally, we could potentially get ten times the reach that we could get physically.

    Always insightful Om Malik proves it again here. He raises the right profile information (see quote in italics above) and the appropriate questions (so what's the problem?).


    Certainly what I find most important for those looking at making a digital transformation or those knee deep in a 100% digital conversion, is how digital must become top of mind, not an afterthought. That is the transformation that must happen and that is the most difficult to operate. Everything else derives from it...

    He is right: it is the mundaine problems that people are most fed up with.

    See detailed report in http://bit.ly/1bRJP0x


    Accenture believes police leaders should consider the following questions to help prepare their police services for the future:

    1. Are you proactively engaging citizens in a two-way dialogue, through a range of contact channels, in a personalized and sustainable manner?

    2. Are your police officers empowered, through the right technology and training?

    3. Have you optimized your ways of working, organizational structures and infrastructure, and partnered with other public and private organizations to achieve better resource and asset management?

    4. Are you making use of sophisticated analytics to inform police officers and access real-time intelligence?

    5. Are you collaborating with your national as well as cross-border network of police services, justice organizations, public, private and voluntary organizations, and citizens?

    6. Have you proactively embedded change management?

    Big Data, crowdsourcing, analytics, and other tech buzzwords are applied here to improve Police force.

    I've been following online grocery for almost 20 years now. Growth has been steady at 20-25% yet remains a marginal offer with high costs, low margins, and complex operations.


    My take: do not try to win the whole shopping cart of consumers because Canadian and American consumers will continue to drive to stores every week for most of their grocery shopping. Winners will focus their online grocery efforts on either

    • a subset of the basket (to reduce the hassle of monthly replenishment of staple products),
    • specific customer segments (young urban professionals living in condos)
    • creation of a physical presence for online pure plays (the way Amazon is doing with Amazon Fresh)
    • increasing the in-store offering with additional products (as Costco has been successfully doing or years)


    Also read

    • What if Clay Christensen Is Right about the Grocery Business (and Amazon Is Wrong)? http://sco.lt/8mYj3Z
    • AmazonFresh Is Last Mile Quest For Total Retail Domination via @fastcompany http://sco.lt/9H3Axt
    • New e-commerce strategies threaten UPS, FedEx- Amazon is their biggest threat via @reuters http://sco.lt/5YhHCj
    • Learn from Wal-Mart’s E-Stumble- eCommerce isn't a project but the future of the company via @wsj http://sco.lt/7gUijR
    • Wal-Mart Digital Transformation puts emphasis on its physical stores - a recipe for all brick-n-mortar retailers to ... http://sco.lt/7y4yen 

    Excerpt from review article by TechCrunch:
    "For many developers, Googling code snippets is just part of their everyday routines. Those snippets, however, are spread all over the web. The co-founders behind Runnable, saw this in their own work at Amazon and hosting companies and decided to build what they call a “YouTube of Code” – a site that allows users to discover code snippets and edit and run the code right on their sites.

    What’s happening then is that, for many developers, coding is slowly becoming more about gluing together existing parts than creating something entirely from scratch. Nobody, however, has made the process of discovering code snippets really easy.

    On Runnable, the six-person team has aggregated code snippets in languages ranging from PHP to Node.js, Python, JavaScript, ASP.NET and Ruby on Rail (as well as some of their frameworks) from a range of reputable sources.
    The idea is to make publishing code on Runnable as easy as writing a blog post on Medium.

    Besides the languages themselves, the team is also focusing on APIs and on how to use products like MySQL, MongoDB, redis and similar frontend and backend services.

    One of the coolest features of Runnable, by the way, is that you can edit the code and test it right on the site..."

    Read full original article by TechCrunch:
    http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/02/runnable-wants-to-become-the-youtube-of-code/

    Check out Runnable: http://runnable.com

    Other review article by Forbes:
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/10/02/runnable-aims-to-be-the-youtube-of-code-only-with-less-cat-videos/

     

    For my technology friends, you may know of this already, if you don't I find it interesting.

    This chart shows how Amazon carries more products across more price points than any brick and mortar retailer.With high volumes and low cost and fast delivery the model becomes difficult to beat.

    Also see related story


    Google hangout transformed into a live shopping app- is this the future of eCommerce? @laureni @mashable http://sco.lt/5DNosj

    Hope you find this compilation useful to help understand what EA is all about.

    This story builds on one I reported a few months ago:

    Google Maps for Business- tracking people and machinery opens new opportunities via @google http://sco.lt/60MKAr


    Products such as Google maps coordinate bring solutions such as the one Amtrak and Swiss trains have put together, into the hand of enterprises of all size. For 250$/user/year, you can track and coordinate a delivery team, support technicians or sales reps out in the field with GPS accuracy. Businesses have access to travel history and other features to help report and improve resources on the road.


    Stuff that would  have required custom development and dedicated devices is now accessible for anyone with a smartphone and 3G cell connexion. Question then become which companies are willing to make the transformation to leverage this new way of doing things?

    • Woolworths is Australia’s largest retailer, with more than 3,000 stores and a staff of 200,000. They moved to Google Apps and Chrome.
    • The country of Malaysia adopted Google Apps for 10 million students, teachers and parents, and deployed Chromebooks to schools nationwide.
    • And yesterday, Whirlpool — which owns Maytag and KitchenAid — announced that they’re rolling out Google Apps to help 30,000 employees collaborate and innovate more quickly.

    I find very interesting how large organizations move to the cloud in such large numbers.The fact that this has to be stated during a keynote at Gartner IT Expo conference is a reflection of how many organization remain behind on this trend.

    a good reference to use when looking for software tools.

    I am a guy so Diane von Furstenberg means little to me. What is impressive is that this experiement - adding shopping to a live google hangout - feels like the future of eCommerce. Actually it feels like the future of QVC - the tv shopping channel.


    It is an indication that future shopping may feel more like being walked through a catalog with the help of a personal shopper - what is being referenced as "curated commerce" - instead of having to browse a catalog of clothes or products.

    Digital transformations may take shape of robots, or machines. This may be a long shot but the video will provide some insights as to how far technology has come today - remember this is an MIT project so not a commercial thing. So look at it as something to keep on your digital radar.

    Anyone running an eCommerce website should at least look at this checklist. It covers all bases (homepage, product, page, checkout, etc.) and plugs some specific solutions.

    Aimed at application development professionals, this playbook brings together various research papers. What is worth noting is the organization the playbook provides to help guide developers from vision to implementation.

    The concept of utility computing is one step closer.


    This is important because it means a reversal of 20 years of outsourcing by GM. It also means computing and data are seens as essential components of future growth and innovation at GM.


    Outsourcing has allowed GM to shed its "old school" IT resources and replace them with a new breed  that is more cloud friendly, big data savvy. GM needs 100 times less resources to run the new DCs than it did the old ones. And new workers are not unionized.


    Going the private cloud way is also an interesting sign, stating that technology is reaching the point where it becomes affordable for large corporations to build their own - even though there is a lot of technology missing that needs to be developed. GM has gone from 23 DCs to 2. Looks like privacy was a big contributing factor as well.


    Also worth reading is the gigaOM review of this new datacenter along with an analysis of what this means for other Fortune100 corporations. Paper also states that economics for private cloud mega datacenters is good once you reach a certain scale.

    Going digital means finding ways to "convert" things into the digital format. Here is an interesting example of mathematical representation of language concepts that become helpful in machine translation, bringing us one step closer to universal translation.

    Key messages: digital transformation takes time, customer expectations are high and retailers have yet to meet them

    Read this short interview to get good answers as to what digital is for an organization and the difference between digital and IT.

    Ocado has been running for 10 years and clearly state the challenge of ecommerce many businesses face: canibalization of store sales and higher costs to sell online due to added labour. Pure plays do not face this problem, which may indeed lead to a time when online grocery shopping will be cheaper than in store. When will this be? When online volume is sufficient to have low cost of goods as existing retailers have?
    Ocado has been running for 10 years and clearly state the challenge of ecommerce many businesses face: canibalization of store sales and higher costs to sell online due to added labour. Pure plays do not face this problem, which may indeed lead to a time when online grocery shopping will be cheaper than in store. When will this be? When online volume is sufficient to have low cost of goods as existing retailers have?

    Great insight into the new reality of advertising in the digital age.

    Look at slide #9 for an overview of the approach.

    The post provides six "high level characteristics" or personality traits that digital workers should have. I find them interesting in that they show the need for digital teams to transform the way things are done, change the status quo and lead by example.


    It is a good starting point but hardly a reference or a how-to guide. Makes for an interesting read and an eye opener, that's it.

    This is a long piece which drive a very important point across for anyone interested in digital transformation: no industry or sector is protected from digital disruption. 


    This is so because the digital world breaks down two factors—opacity and agility—that have long made consulting immune to disruption.


    The paper provides ample examples of disruption in the Legal and Consulting industry, as well as provides checklists and implications that should be must read for anyone of my friends in the consulting field.

    Another american retailer offering delivery to Canada is one example of why Canadian retailer face increasing global competition.

    Online grocery shopping is growing faster in the UK than elsewhere, and a lot can be learned from what’s happening there, especially related to shoppers’ response to supply and demand. Ocado is a good place to look.


    Ocado, the pure-play online grocery retailer that’s driving UK growth in this sector, is a good place to look.  Redburn has pulled together a very complete analysis (pdf) that lays out why and how Ocado is expected to grow. 

    Here are two points that caught our attention: 

    • An underlying principle for online grocery retail is that “supply creates demand,” so it makes sense that shoppers who have online grocery shopping experience are five times more likely to switch to Ocado than those with no experience. 
    • Also, here’s an interesting leading indicator – Redburn found that the number of Google searches for Ocado was a good predictor of Ocado sales gains.
    BMC POV 

    The current growth in online grocery shopping is being propelled by shoppers’ increasing use of and dependence on the internet, and lower costs made possible by new, higher-efficiency distribution systems.

    The 70 page Redburn report is filled with data and analysis of Ocado, a grocery retailer in the UK. It provides very useful information of an actual pureplay eCommerce player, information that can be leveraged in business cases and other eCommerce analysis. Must read if you are in the eCommerce business. 

    Interesting insight into differences in service level agreements. This is going to become more and more important over the years as organizations move production-grade high availability business-essential components to the cloud.

    Part of the new reality of the digital life, is how to manage the good and the bad. Here a very practical (if not easy) approach.

    Another data point in favor of recent MIT study that claims as much as 50% of US jobs will disappear in the next 20 years due to computerization. Also goes well with the digital cliff that has happened in certain industries, news print and media for example as this chart demonstrates. My advice: retrain, retrain, retrain.


    Half of US jobs are vulnerable to computerization- How Technology Is Destroying Jobs via @MIT http://sco.lt/8dBxlR

    Even in a digital world, Tim O'Reilly's sharing his lessons are great reminders that lots of important things are not digital: business acumen, human relationship management, attention to financials, etc. Thank you for reminding me.

    Eye opening article on different ways companies can leverage the time people spend watching tv and having a tablet at the same time. I thought that enhancement of programs or ads with additional "hidden" coupons or specials were interesting as it provides a direct link from tv to shopping behaviour that can be measured.

    I've been following collusion addon since its inception and I use it on a regular basis to remember all the digital breadcrums I leave behind as I roam around on the Internet.


    This is an awakening video but unfortunately the collusion software fail to offer us paths to minimize what behavioural tracking - aside from blocking all ads.

    Right inline with a post I wrote regarding the Digital Cliff (in french). This is so true!

    Just an amazing visualization

    I do not agree that Amazon is wrong (as evidenced from the success of online grocery in Europe, UK in particular), Clay highlights an important fact: specialization will make for a much easier entry-point in the online grocery eCommerce for established retailers. And maybe offer a nice niche for some startups.

    I am firm believer of the people-process-technology equilibrium. Digital transformation impact humans and if they are not willing to change, then technology implementation often fails. However, this paper makes the point that, over time, the transformation will occur and those that fail to change their way loose their jobs. 


    What is even more interesting is the research that indicates which industries and sectors are most vulnerable in the next few years. Is your job on the list?


    A nice short companion article to read is Report Suggests Nearly Half of U.S. Jobs Are Vulnerable to Computerization

    http://bit.ly/18TDnjn 

    Sounds simple, right? Actually it is from a technology standpoint if you were starting from scratch. But very costly and time consuming to change existing processes and retrain people on technology that has to be fitted within a whole lot of other existing technologies. But the goal is clear and innovative banks and financial institutions that put their muscle and mind to it may actually reap the benefits...

    Really worth listening to the 2min video on Adidas NEO window shopping solution. Truly amazing and useful if deployed, can replace manequins in store. Montreal-based 2xm interactive has done something similar recently so I expect we will see more and more of this new kind of window shopping.

    Great examples and reviews but unfortunately it really boils down to large screens and touchscreens. I much rather like the suggestions in the Econsultancy report that proposes all these methods to enhance the store experience:

    • Store finders
    • Vouchers
    • Reserve and collect
    • Mobile-optimised sites  
    • Google Places for Business
    • Mobile search
    • Click to call
    • Mobile listings  
    • Social media
    • Location-based apps
    • Daily deals 
    • In-store wi-fi
    • QR codes
    • Barcode scanners
    • Kiosks and tablets
    • Reviews
    • Interactive mirrors
    • Pop-up shops

    I dabbled in mixing songs when I was a kid in the 1980s. This to me is utter science fiction.. ;-)

    I have a leap motion device at home (via kickstarter!). It remains a toy on my desk as I have yet to find meaningful applications for the device in the information worker area. 


    However this video shows very well how a simple 99$ device can completely transform the design process and product innovation.

    My mind boggles when I read the sheer volume of print catalogues out there. And weekly grocery paper flyers! There is no question that a digital cliff is approaching (read my post about it) and that they will be hit hard. What should media companies do to prevent falling off the cliff? 


    Maybe transforming the publications to make them relevant in the digital age? Embed QR codes or NFC chips to facilitate ordering from the magazine. Enhance apps to link catalog content to online presence. Create augmented reality features like IKEA did with its 2014 catalog

    Gap is a perfect example of limitations that existing retailers have o face when going digital: their internal legacy systems and their people cannot change instantly!


    Gap appears to have taken a creative route, offering pickup in stores only where it was possible to do so.

    This is just a beautiful of Internet Of Things: there is no more difference between a web page and an internet connected camera, medical device, or caterpillar truck. The tone of the article is scary but I do not find it so. Just plain lazyness has left doors open, which will certainly be closed over time. Simple. But the opportunity will be there in the future for all kinds of remote access. For good, and for bad.

    I keep going back to this short blog post from Mark McDonald (now with Accenture) as I find it provides amazing insights in the transformation that IT organizations must drive. CIOs must lead this transformation, which requires changing their internal processes and morphing their team skills from those of server-hugging team to architecture, contract management and data management.


    Read the post, Mark says it better than I do. 


    Unfortunately I fail to see many organizations going in that direction. Not yet anyways.

    While the C-suite sometimes seems too crowded today, it's also clear that technology is underrepresented in the leadership circle as digital in all its forms deeply infuses the modern organization.


    The reality is that organizations will do both of these things: Add more C-level executive oversight to digital while they also attempt to broaden their technology adoption base internally on the ground (making everyone part of the IT department, essentially, just like everyone is part of the social media team.) While this might have been somewhat controversial even a year or two ago, it's now clear that this is the likely route for most companies, even as they have to vigorously compete with many digital startups trying to displace them with a purer and more savvy approach not hindered by their legacy constraints.

    If anything, Dion's diagram brings home the point that having a Chief Digital Officer will be confusing as its role overlaps with that of the CIO and the CMO. Much better in my book to evolve those existing roles to take over new responsibilities.


    Also read

    • Don't Hide Behind a Chief Digital Officer - just do it via @forrester @martinjohngill @jeanfdeschenes http://sco.lt/8ysx6H
    • 3 reasons why Chief Digital Officer (CDO) is a transitional role via @gartner @PeterSonderg http://sco.lt/5Vpz7Z

    I love how Forrester has split the business world into 3 buckets, and then linked the need for a CDO to those. Very appropriate.

    This is what digital transformation also means : devices that are connected to the Internet become searchable things. Same way "whatever you put on the Internet cannot be erased", whatever device you connect to the Internet becomes an open door for anyone to enter it. With 200B things already mapped by this search engine, we are only at the beginning. Imagine when all cars, traffic lights and machine controllers are connected to the Internet.

    See also http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/09/05/the-crazy-things-a-savvy-shodan-searcher-can-find-exposed-on-the-internet/

    If I understand well, if a technology reduces transactions costs then it gets adopted, otherwise it does not. Take eCommerce in the grocery industry (which I know a little about).


    So far it has failed to soar except in certain countries (UK mostly). Why is that so when it has been so successful in other industries? This theory would say that it is because buying groceries online does not reduce transaction costs enough. Makes sense since groceries are inexpensive and we buy a lot every week, as opposed to buying a big screen TV online, which is something that cost much and we do it few times.


    Am I reading this properly? Even if I am not the idea is interesting.

    3D printing has changed our perception of mass manufacturing, but there's also a parallel revolution -- doctors are using the technology to save lives.


    The doctors took a CT scan of his trachea and bronchus to produce a precise image, from which they could design the device. Using computer modeling software and making some modifications, they created a splint that perfectly matched Kaiba's windpipe and printed it with a biodegradable polyester called polycaprolactone.

    The custom splint fits around Kaiba's airway, and it will dissolve within three years. Image: University of Michigan Health System


    The splint goes around the outside of the bronchus, then sutures pass through the splint to tether the trachea through the inside. This expands the bronchus and inflates the trachea. With growth, the splint opens up.

    Even though Green and Hollister sized the design to Kaiba's bronchus, they crafted three or four increments of about a half a millimeter above and below the diameter from his scan. Then they made about five copies of each, just to make sure they had enough going into the operating room.

    3D printing is the missing link in digital transformation, allowing bits to travel at the speed of light to reproduce real world objects from digital bits. This closes the loop in the digital transformation, allowing businesses to digitize, manipulate, then replace into physical world elements. This article shows the extent to which we have come.


    More amusing, Twinkind can now produce 3D miniature of yourselves.

    An especially life-like example. Photo: Twinkind


    For more on 3D printing I suggest reading the very good Wired article from 2012.

    I've been using business model tool for years now. This gallery is truly amazing and I believe will be very useful for business architects and managers as they define their own corporate strategy because they will be able to easily compare with what others are doing.

    Very interesting stats on the pervasiveness of software in devices. I did not know pacemakeres have 80000 lines of code in them.

    Digital tansformation also means new ways to interact with our world. Leap motion controller is very recent technology that is starting slowly to show useful applications. Here is drawing on photoshop. Another example is sound mixing live DJ which I find as impressive than the drawing example..

    I did not have the chance to review Gartner's research but I agree that CDO role is transitional, essential only when CIOs cannot play the part. CIOs already support multiple lines of business and thus have a global view of the organization like few other executives do.


    Discussions around new CxO roles point to a major transformation of the CIO's role in the near future.

    The tool draws on Ecommerce and Multi-Channel Funnels data from over 36,000 Google Analytics clients that authorized sharing, including millions of purchases across 11 industries in 7 countries. Purchase paths in this tool are each based on interactions with a single ecommerce advertiser.

    Big data is being demonstrated here again by Google, in a similar fashion to the Google flu trend and google trends, Google offers a tool to visualize the data behind eCommerce and conversion across multiple industries and countries.

    This is related to a recent post on trash can that track users using their mobile wifi, a solution that is also being deployed in stores to detect and track shoppers and their behaviour.


    Great thing here (as in the post on security cameras doing face detection), the solution leverages existing WIFI access point equipment in the stores. It simply analyzes the data in a new way. Low cost, easy to deploy.

    If you have an operate stores, knowing more about your customer behaviour is possible. Video and image recognition is now so advanced that retailers may soon use their old video cameras to not only record store videos for security purposes but also use them for shopper behaviour analytics.

    At NRF conference in NYC this year, the company 3VR that specializes in video security equipments is demoing a system that analyzes video feeds in real-time to recognize the gender of its shoppers  and report in real-time on such things as

    • shopper interest on certain product displays
    • cash register queue line length average, per time of day
    • even individual shopper card, with picture
    • mood analysis to determine shopper intent to buy


    The same system can of course be leveraged for security purposes, often its original purpose
    • loss prevention
    • theft detection
    • security recording
    Retailers with multiple stores or multiple brands could even analyze the feeds across stores to determine individual shopper behaviour. Linked to CRM systems, this can prove very powerful, building shopping profiles of individual customers. Of course will raise privacy concerns.
    At the same time, this is exactly the type of information that online retailers have access to and leverage to segment and profile their customers on their website and between different websites.

    With the predominence of digital technologies in companies today, and with the limited and fragmented view that resources in the organizations have of the technologies that power their enterprise and allow them to compete, I believe an annual technology report should be mandatory objectives for all CIO, CTO, or CDO.

    With the movement for mobile first, corporation did not immediately jump on board, as evidenced by the small number of mobile friendly websites out there. However, this chart demonstrates that ecommerce is moving to mobile devices, tablet in particular, and that early adopters of the trend will inevitably reap the benefits or at least get a leg up on their competition.

    Let’s say you fancy a fast car. Flavio Garcia, a University of Birmingham computer scientist, discovered the algorithim that verifies the ignition key for luxury cars like Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. He was slapped with an injunction to ban him from disclosing his findings at the Usenix Security Symposium in order to prevent sophisticated criminal gangs from having the analytics tools for widespread car theft.

    You might need Garcia’s algorithm to steal a car, but soon, with an entirely different algorithm, you may be able to crash one into a tree or disable its brakes from a distance. Or maybe it’s a fast boat you’re after. Mess with its GPS, and you can steer it where you want without the crew noticing.

    This post is full of very relevant and useful links. Building on what is in this piece, I suggest the following to get a feel for the evil side of these hacks. 


    Listen to the 60 minutes report on the stuxnet and the flame viruses, which were recently used to attack nuclear facilities in Iran. Also read an interesting report during a recent security conference of simulated attacks on an oil rig or another post on potential security concerns with airplanes.


    Digital transformations ultimately will mean everything will be digital - corporations, things, and most of what people see and do. And when you get to 100% digital and 100% connected, some of what Alistair is describing will become common place.



    Going digital means adopting new tools from the digital world. Use case points estimations have been around for a long while but having a Mckinsey review certainly provides an important validation.

    Far from a bubble, we're watching a new generation of tech start-ups realize the Web's original potential, says Marc Andreessen.

     

    Why is this happening now?

     

    Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.

     

    Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago, when I was at Netscape, the company I co-founded. In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day.

     

    On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new employees. In 2000, when my partner Ben Horowitz was CEO of the first cloud computing company, Loudcloud, the cost of a customer running a basic Internet application was approximately $150,000 a month. Running that same application today in Amazon's cloud costs about $1,500 a month.

    QuickHoney


    With lower start-up costs and a vastly expanded market for online services, the result is a global economy that for the first time will be fully digitally wired—the dream of every cyber-visionary of the early 1990s, finally delivered, a full generation later.

     

    Perhaps the single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a traditional business is the suicide of Borders and corresponding rise of Amazon. In 2001, Borders agreed to hand over its online business to Amazon under the theory that online book sales were non-strategic and unimportant.

     

    Oops.

     

    Today, the world's largest bookseller, Amazon, is a software company—its core capability is its amazing software engine for selling virtually everything online, no retail stores necessary. On top of that, while Borders was thrashing in the throes of impending bankruptcy, Amazon rearranged its web site to promote its Kindle digital books over physical books for the first time. Now even the books themselves are software.

     

    Today's largest video service by number of subscribers is a software company: Netflix. How Netflix eviscerated Blockbuster is an old story, but now other traditional entertainment providers are facing the same threat. Comcast, Time Warner and others are responding by transforming themselves into software companies with efforts such as TV Everywhere, which liberates content from the physical cable and connects it to smartphones and tablets.

     

    Today's dominant music companies are software companies, too: Apple's iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. Traditional record labels increasingly exist only to provide those software companies with content. Industry revenue from digital channels totaled $4.6 billion in 2010, growing to 29% of total revenue from 2% in 2004.

    Today's fastest growing entertainment companies are videogame makers—again, software—with the industry growing to $60 billion from $30 billion five years ago. And the fastest growing major videogame company is Zynga (maker of games including FarmVille), which delivers its games entirely online. Zynga's first-quarter revenues grew to $235 million this year, more than double revenues from a year earlier. Rovio, maker of Angry Birds, is expected to clear $100 million in revenue this year (the company was nearly bankrupt when it debuted the popular game on the iPhone in late 2009). Meanwhile, traditional videogame powerhouses like Electronic Arts and Nintendo have seen revenues stagnate and fall.

     

    The best new movie production company in many decades, Pixar, was a software company. Disney—Disney!—had to buy Pixar, a software company, to remain relevant in animated movies.

    Photography, of course, was eaten by software long ago. It's virtually impossible to buy a mobile phone that doesn't include a software-powered camera, and photos are uploaded automatically to the Internet for permanent archiving and global sharing. Companies like Shutterfly, Snapfish and Flickr have stepped into Kodak's place.

    Today's largest direct marketing platform is a software company—Google. Now it's been joined by Groupon, Living Social, Foursquare and others, which are using software to eat the retail marketing industry. Groupon generated over $700 million in revenue in 2010, after being in business for only two years.

    Today's fastest growing telecom company is Skype, a software company that was just bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. CenturyLink, the third largest telecom company in the U.S., with a $20 billion market cap, had 15 million access lines at the end of June 30—declining at an annual rate of about 7%. Excluding the revenue from its Qwest acquisition, CenturyLink's revenue from these legacy services declined by more than 11%. Meanwhile, the two biggest telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon, have survived by transforming themselves into software companies, partnering with Apple and other smartphone makers.

     

    LinkedIn is today's fastest growing recruiting company. For the first time ever, on LinkedIn, employees can maintain their own resumes for recruiters to search in real time—giving LinkedIn the opportunity to eat the lucrative $400 billion recruiting industry.

     

    Software is also eating much of the value chain of industries that are widely viewed as primarily existing in the physical world. In today's cars, software runs the engines, controls safety features, entertains passengers, guides drivers to destinations and connects each car to mobile, satellite and GPS networks. The days when a car aficionado could repair his or her own car are long past, due primarily to the high software content. The trend toward hybrid and electric vehicles will only accelerate the software shift—electric cars are completely computer controlled. And the creation of software-powered driverless cars is already under way at Google and the major car companies.

     

    Today's leading real-world retailer, Wal-Mart, uses software to power its logistics and distribution capabilities, which it has used to crush its competition. Likewise for FedEx, which is best thought of as a software network that happens to have trucks, planes and distribution hubs attached. And the success or failure of airlines today and in the future hinges on their ability to price tickets and optimize routes and yields correctly—with software.

     

    Oil and gas companies were early innovators in supercomputing and data visualization and analysis, which are crucial to today's oil and gas exploration efforts. Agriculture is increasingly powered by software as well, including satellite analysis of soils linked to per-acre seed selection software algorithms.

     

    The financial services industry has been visibly transformed by software over the last 30 years. Practically every financial transaction, from someone buying a cup of coffee to someone trading a trillion dollars of credit default derivatives, is done in software. And many of the leading innovators in financial services are software companies, such as Square, which allows anyone to accept credit card payments with a mobile phone, and PayPal, which generated more than $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year, up 31% over the previous year.

    Health care and education, in my view, are next up for fundamental software-based transformation. My venture capital firm is backing aggressive start-ups in both of these gigantic and critical industries. We believe both of these industries, which historically have been highly resistant to entrepreneurial change, are primed for tipping by great new software-centric entrepreneurs.

     

    Even national defense is increasingly software-based. The modern combat soldier is embedded in a web of software that provides intelligence, communications, logistics and weapons guidance. Software-powered drones launch airstrikes without putting human pilots at risk. Intelligence agencies do large-scale data mining with software to uncover and track potential terrorist plots.

    A bit long as all the content is here to bypass the WSJ paywall. 


    Very interesting viewpoint from a digital pioneer that highlights how profound the enterprise changes are with digital.

    CEOs and other senior executives are increasingly engaged as their companies step up efforts to build digital enterprises.


    When asked about their expectations for digital’s top line, executives at business-to-business companies are actually more optimistic than their business-to-consumer peers, perhaps due to the increased consumer expectations, price transparency, and competitive pressures that business-to-consumer companies face. While respondents see value from all five trends, they are hoping for more value from customer engagement than other trends: executives who expect an income boost from digital business attribute the largest part of that increase to digital customer engagement (Exhibit 5). Among those expecting a negative impact on company income, the largest share of respondents say it’s due to their inability to adequately respond to changing customer behavior and expectations.

    With all the talk on Big Data these days, Mckinsey shows that digital engagement of customers has biggest potential for income.

    Deleting yourself from the Internet is hard work. First, you have to decide where exactly you want to disappear — from social media sites to retailer databases — and then you have to figure out how you're going to do all that.

    So attention, web users. This is something you'll want to bookmark.

    A new site called JustDelete.me makes vanishing from the web much, much easier. Created by U.K.-based developer Robb Lewis, JustDelete.me is a directory of urls that highlights links to pages you may want to remove yourself from, so you don't have to jump through hoops to do so. This includes sites like Facebook, Foursquare, Dropbox.

    This is just a list of links but still worth the effort to have a single location with all the links. Would be useful to automate the work though.

    Provides a very detailed list of use cases with examples from known websites - hotel.com, ryanair, and many others - are designed to deceive users.


    All based on the principle that users do not read everything and are naturally against change, as the opt-in versus opt-out organ donor stats indicate quite clearly!


    Fascinating.

    At hacking conferences, hacks have been demonstrated that are specific to attacking and hijacking planes. It leverages communication systems between the plane and the control tower, but also within the plane itself. The solutions require an industry consensus but manufacturers will have to be ready to provide security and updates that are more akin to managing software than building wings and landing gears. To an enterprise architect like I am, it raises questions about software updates on planes, remote monitoring, enhanced security, etc. and the coordination of IT within the engineering process.
    Hacker uses an Android to remotely attack and hijack an airplane (2013)
    Hacker + Airplanes = No Good Can Come Of This (2012)
    DEFCON 2012 video (long, 1hr, but worth listening as it explains the concepts quite well)

    Have a look at section #3, starting page 17 for metrics and then for case studies to help Hr professionals gain a more data-driven visibility into the HR practie in their organization.

    Along the same lines as the CApgemini paper on digital manufacturing, Accenture presents an early view into 100% digital businesses. It proposes a self assessment which may be useful for those wondering if they are ready for 100% digital.

    Summary of Key Findings
    • Mobile traffic to online magazines and catalogs rose across most industries in Q1 2013, with iPads still the predominant device.
    • Dwell time in digital magazines/catalogs increased slightly since the 2012 benchmark, by 17 seconds per visit.
    • For online retailers and ecommerce brands, share of total website visits viewing digital publications went up in Q1, as did the associated online revenue – making this segment even more valuable.


    Hospitality and Food & Beverage Industries
    Here, the intersection of digital with real-world falls into two main publication categories:
    1. Pre-trip planning brochures and magazines: from downloadable grocery lists with coupons to inspirational vacation destination guides.
    2. Digital flyers with on-the-go conveniences: examples include pamphlets with searchable recipes that can be accessed online or in grocery stores, and travel guides that work across devices and can be taken anywhere.

    Interesting data on increased conversion rates when eCommerce website content is organized into a magazine-style catalog. Data from zmag shows an increase in conversion rate which appears impressive. Makes sense as it is very fluid to browse a magazine, more than paging through a eCommerce catalog. And with mobile devices, browsing magazines appears to benefit most form the magazine format, as they are more linear and easier to navigate. With automated links to eCommerce cart, the impulse to buy can be converted to an action rapidly, straight from the magazine. 


    Moreover, most recent study presents interesting link to traditional coupons and flyers, which lend themselves well to the magazine format.


    This study is biased of course as zmag provides the technology to enable the magazine creation. Looking at the process to create the magazine, it appears a very time consuming process which would benefit from a bit of automation, as it opens an interesting avenue for retailers.


    It appears to be an interesting bridge of the old and the new...

    No surprise: customers are not willing to pay for delivery and they don't care much about same-day delivery. What is interesting is the analysis that this may provide an edge to traditional retailers, as they already have a network of stores close to where their customers are. 


    Booz adequately stresses the need for retailers to transform their business in order to offer order delivery. The changes are profound as they impact not only technology but processes and people as well, which rarely like change... 


    I believe Booz may have forgotten to mention that order pickup in stores may actually provide a better alternative than delivery does. That being said, the transform is as important for pickup as it is for delivery.


    Moreover, the analysis misses one key element I believe: delivery (or pickup) adds costs that traditional retailers did not have before online shopping. That places them at cost disadvantage over online pure plays (even if those pure plays open distribution centers, as they will target lower cost facilities that are perfectly suited for delivery or pickup).

    Digital Tools Can Help Manufacturing Companies Cut Costs by 30%

    Manufacturing companies have historically had an on-off relation with technology. Most have aggressively adopted traditional technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). However, they have been slow in adopting recent digital technologies such as big data analytics, real-time order confirmation, Web-EDI among others. Moreover, most have adopted technologies to varying extent creating a connectivity gap in their operations. We believe digital technologies will help manufacturing companies in eliminating this gap. Our research and project experience indicate that by adopting digital tools, manufacturing companies can cut costs by as much as 30% by enabling savings on capital costs, labor field force among other key cost elements.

    Not often do we get insights into measurable benefits that digital tranformation can bring to manufacturing industry. This paper by capgemini highlights those benefits and provides guidance on what it means to have a 100% digital manufacturing, from supply chain to field service.

    The report is light but presents some interesting examples of the use of gamification in HR. Employee on boarding could benefit from gamification I beieve, as would training. The idea of talent sourcing gamification I also find appealing.


    I have also seen games be very successful in sales team training with solutions developed by Talentuum for example. I've seen enterprise social networks leverage the peer rating and badge allocation that new solutions provide be successful. However, as in real life, "games" do not appeal to all and thus this is why I believe gamification is one tool amongst many that should be leveraged.

    Impact of the digital transformation in clear terms: devaluation of companies that throned in the "old" world. 

    Suggest that Amazon strategy is based on 3 pillars: Prime to get loyal customers (with 299$/yr version for groceries), local warehouses to speed time-to-delivery and make same-day deliveries possible, Fresh to get volume and trucks on the road. Sounds right to me.

    Very interesting way to capture an image - here a google logo - and get information about it - here a stock quote. More probable - and useful - will be a face recognition that reminds you the name of the person you are meeting. Google says they will not do it but I think this is a killer app in many business environments.

    for those with a gigaom pro account read it.otherwise call me for insights ;-)

    very useful insights from someone that has been very successful with his startup(s).

    This article makes me think of the collusion website that shows all your online activities based on the ads you view in web pages. I could see a future where google analytics not only shows your online website activities but your physical stores as well.
    Curated commerce is what this is, and a clear retaliation to Pinterest and others. Amazon with its size and large user base and 8M plus catalogue can provide and amazing way for curators to make a little extra cash via its affiliate program.

    Provides an amazing summary of multiple McKinsey studies and reports. but most important it ties together numerous concepts and technologies and explains why they will transform the way business is done over next years.

    Pretty much goes without saying that technology companies had highest % of digital friendly board members. Interestingly, most boards are taking a digital transformation, moving to paperless world via the use of secure portals and iPads. That's a start.

    A simple visualization of the power of compounded growth. Goes along with what Ray Kurweil explains at length in his book the singularity is near. But more striking with the example that Andrew McAfee presents in this video.

    First entry into my 100% digital theme. Harvest is my timesheet and invoicing solution. Litterally saves me hours avery month in invoice production. Must have for any small business that still produces invoices manually using excel and word.

    Another visualization of wifi signals, this one from a different viewpoint and wider angle.

    Simple solution to visualize the wifi signals: a pole with lights and long exposure photography. The invisible digital world becomes visible! Watch the video to understand how it works.

    Basically, everyone should become aware and turn "ON" two-factor authentication and start using tools to manage their complex passwords. This is the world we live in!

    I'Ve published this before but this time I wanted to draw attention to the measurable business benefits that companies draw from using social and other digital solutions. 

    For years McKinsey has published a study that links the use of web2.0 and social within the enterprise to measurable benefits - lower travel and communication costs, higher access to knowledge and experts. Now Capgemini and MIT, as part of their digital transformation joint study, have demonstrated that investment in digital can be profitable for large organization. Example here is Utility but I assuem this translates into other industries as well, at varying levels of success that depends on the impact that digital has on them.

    Truly insightful for anyone that thinks privacy remains in this digital age of ours. Must follow the link to the ZEIT online recreation of the digital journey. It will open your eyes as to how much data breadcrums we leave behind with just carrying our cell phones with us. When crossed with additional information including twitter feeds, facebook postings, google searches and other digital activities, our life is fully documented. 

    Those that fear lifelogging should fear no more as they are already doing it, albeit unvoluntarilly.

    That being said, this may have tons of useful information for businesses but I fail to see any CIO or IT team yet tapping into this trove of data that could be leverage to improve distribution routes or manage employees better.

    Not sure exactly how this works or if I understand the concept well, time will tell. But it sounds like a new approach towards curated commerce, that is to leverage social network of people that will hand-walk you through a shopping process. I can see this being useful in a number of different situations:

    • I plan a large purchase - say an electronics product or a car - and I am not an expert in the field. I pay to have someone expert in the field walk me through different options form websites from the comfort of my room even though the may be miles away in a different and we shop on a remote located website
    • I am on a diet and would like someone to help me design a meal menu and halp me choose the right kind of products from grocery stores. Here the expertise is not so much with the products that I am about to buy but rather with the objective that I have which requires a specific selection of products
    • I am looking for some kind of service - accountant, legal, medical, etc. - and would like someone to help me choose the best vendor. I get hand holded while we cruise a selected set of websites. Ultimately I may not buy online the service but the selection process wwas all done accompanied online.

    Of course this help will come at at price: either I pay for the service or the seller give a sales commission.

    Interesting times ahead.

    Amazing 2 minnute video that should make anyone nnot convinced about digital transformation change their mind. A weekend hack by undoubtoubly talented programmers turns into a simple solution to replace a very old obsolete technology. I assume the same story could repeat in many different environments.

    The free app allows users to virtually place and viewIKEA furniture in their homes via augmented reality.

    The feature lets consumers explore a room in 360 or 180 degrees using the device sensors. Consumers will be able to view a room both vertically and horizontally.

    Took a long time to find a useful application for augmented reality but this may be it. With Ikea's large customer base and a very useful feature (will this table look good in my living room? what will the room look like if I place a big chair in the middle?), this may be the killer app to draw users to use this feature.


    From Ikea's viewpoint, if they capture customer data (which I don't know if they will), they would gain tremendous insight into customer behaviour and buying decisions, as well as bridge the paper catalog world with the digital one. Will it convert into more sales?

    Send us back to ancient Greece with an AK-47, a home brewing kit, or a battery-powered vibrator, and startled peasants would worship at our feet.

    ...
    The conviction that each generation would live better than the last has evaporated. Emerging from the financial crisis won’t be enough. For most of us, even the boom wasn’t all that great. From 1950 to 1970, the typical American worker doubled his salary in real terms. Since then, even before the 2007 bust, inflation adjusted wages for the median male worker have actually gone down.
    ...

    Only one thing makes entrepreneurs expand capacity and that has nothing to do with government tax policy. A businessman will hire more workers and invest when his inventory is shrinking, specifically, when he is able to sell more than he is able to produce. If stock is sitting on his shelf, he instead fires workers, no matter what his tax rate.

    Essential read to put our digital transformation in perspective.


    Technology and digital solutions have contributed to most of the supply overflow we have today. Can digital also help solve the demand crisis? It sure creates demand for new kinds of products and services, for which I benefit tremendously, being an artisan in the digital fabrication of things.


    But I am not sure it is a good thing to consume more and more. This essay provides amazing context, raises some interesting questions but unfortunately fails to bring many answers.

    Very powerful insight for any company considering the use of social technologies in its digital business transformation. In particular, the presentation of a maturity model provides clear guidance for businesses in order to derive a plan that increases maturity without boiling the ocean all at once! ;-)

    Not sure where I stand on this. 


    Mind blowing that a company - any company - would loose so much money and keep pushing for it, spending even more now.


    On the other hand, they were late in the game, and that is the cost to stay in business, to remain relevant, not to fall off the digital cliff. Had they started a bit earlier, who knows, the picture may have been different. And you never know who of their competitors will stumble or when they will. At which time Microsoft may be there to offer an option to the market and make the investment worthwhile...

    I love when someone looks back to look forward. This is one of them. Basically says that improvements only happen once the technology is stable. We are entering that era now where the benefits of the mobile revolution, high speed mobile web access, and cloud computing will bring true benefits to

    • reduce cost of IT operations in corporations or improve time-to-market, or both
    • connect with your employees, partners, clients, suppliers on the road, making the need for an office less relevant than ever, other than to meet face to face
    • transform knowledge access and sharing, providing instant access to sales numbers on the road
    • connecting to cars, trucks, and other machinery to improve production and reduce cost of operation of these machines (with preventive maintenance for example)
    • and many more I am sure


    This is nothing new. From the PBS article:


    The appearance of Eastman's cameras was so sudden and so pervasive that the reaction in some quarters was fear. A figure called the "camera fiend" began to appear at beach resorts, prowling the premises until he could catch female bathers unawares. One resort felt the trend so heavily that it posted a notice: "PEOPLE ARE FORBIDDEN TO USE THEIR KODAKS ON THE BEACH."

    Very interesting viewpoint that brings me back to the concept of lifelogging and the book Total Recall. In the context of enterprises, the question of justice versus privacy appears less difficult to resolve, as companies already monitor the digital activities of employees, read their emails and limit the websites they have access to. Adding an extra layer of surveillance, to provide digital memories when accidents happen or to recollect exactly what was said during a meeting or a contract negotiation does not strike me as far fetched. Of course, it also brings with it the potential for abuse...

    The new report just came out.

    Shipping costs of 4.7% of revenue for Amazon is probably the biggest reason why Amazon will start selling groceries online: put trucks on the road.

    Interesting to look at what happens after companies are successful on crowd financing platforms such as kickstarter. It really is the first time we can observe what happens when startups of one or two employees enjoy popular success without any kind of venture capital. It also opens a new window into the power that direct access to customers can bring.

    Amazing resource for any consultant looking for insight into the digital transformation. Wide ranging study from MIT with insights and guidance that is very useful.

    A significant shift to Internet marketing is transforming the automobile industry, and CF Search Marketing is helping dealerships across the country navigate the transition from television and newspaper advertising to search engine optimization and marketing, social media, inbound marketing and pay-per-click models of measurement.

    ...

    "It's not the whole puzzle," he said of digital marketing for the auto industry. "We know (dealers) have X amount of dollars and we help strategize with them. The old-school dealers who don't embrace this, who don't understand that the next generation of car buyers are getting most of their information through their cell phones, won't be able to compete."

    As a result of this transformation, many medium-sized and large dealerships now have Internet sales teams, and landing at the top of local search pages such as Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Maps has become a priority.

    Great example of the needs for small businesses to embrace the digital medium or die. The large automakers have made the shift years ago but car dealerships are small businesses and they have yet to make the move. Looks like the time is now and that they need help tomake the transition, changing processes and I assume people as well...

    Recorded from Grossman's point of view, the surgical footage (now demarcated as "private" on YouTube) was transmitted to a Google hangout. Grossman said that his goal with the procedure was to show how the device and its platform could be used as intuitive, inexpensive tools to aid in surgical maneuvering and mentoring.

    unfortunately looks like google glass initial applications all focus on the photo or video sharing. Like a wearable internet-connected videocamera.


    Unfortunately there is so much more usage for such a device, but I assume they will be explored over time.


    Until then this remains quite powerful.

    With the Google Maps API, you can build powerful applications that track assets, alert based on geofences, and geolocate devices, all delivered through the familiar Google Maps interface. Find out how DHL streamlines their package delivery process using the Google Maps API.

    If it is good enough for DHL to track its parcels and deliveries, or for Swiss railways to show the positions of their train in realtime, then why would it not be good enough for

    • tracking pharma sales reps in their daily rounds to medical offices?
    • showing where your cable repair guy (or plumber or electrician) is (and predict when he will arrive at your home)
    • locating rental equiment in the field (ok this assumes large rentals such as cranes as it probably needs some kind of cell phone with gps)?


    In fact, any business that needs to track, inventory or display assets on a map must absolutely look into the google maps API and other solutions.

    The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that is most definitely the future of gaming.

    The device straps onto your head and completely immerses you inside a video game. It also has motion sensors so you can look around as if you were really inside the world. 

    But it's nearly impossible to explain. The Oculus Rift is one of those things you have to see to believe. Several Business Insider employees gave it a whirl last week, and we took them on a trip through the solar system, on a medieval roller coaster, and put them into a death-by-guillotine simulation.



    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/oculus-rift-video-demo-2013-7#ixzz2Z1z0wfjF

    Along the lines of the google glass project, the apearance of low cost devices like this can have a profound impact in small engineering, design, graphics, architecture, urban planning teams. Anyone in business that has a need for viewing digital world in 3D. 


    And judging from the reactions in this video, it works!

    This is what my inbox of the past 8 years looks like, thanks to the "immersion" service from MIT. It looks at your emails envelopes, not the content of the email, just the information about your emails, then graphs a pretty detailed relationship map of your network, colleagues, friends and relationships. All without looking at your email text. 


    I compare it to LinkedIn inMaps such as this one that represents all my network 1200+ relations and their connexions. Color coding helps show groups within my network. Pretty revealing as well.


    Imagine this in the context of business. Imagine the competitive intelligence you can get by mining the metadata of your competitor's employees. All you need is the metadata about their email or their LinkedIn relations. Impressive.

    Must read presentation that shows examples of big data analytics that enterprises have deployed in fields of telecom, banking, supermarkets, etc. Quite amazing.

    Here are some suggestions for retailers:

    The insights provided maybe very helpful for retailers as they consider why and how to integrate mobile into their digital strategy. No more are dedicated apps required as responsive web designs now help websites become tablet and phone friendly, thus providing mobile support out of the gate.

    Not all users are the same. This chart makes it clear. When considering digital transformations, not all your audience members will make the jump to digital but those that do will embrace it with a passion. Target them, and analyze your site traffic to make sure their needs are addressed.


    This applies equally well to your internal users, employees and partners, in an intranet or an extranet context. Make sure they are well taken care of.

    Staples is reacting to a significant shift to buying office supplies online. In 2012, Staples sold $10.3 billion online, making it No. 2 in the Internet Retailer 2013 Top 500 Guide. Those web sales represented 42.2% of Staples total 2012 sales of $24.4 billion. Its main competitors also are top online retailers, as Office Depot Inc. ranks No. 7 in the Top 500 and OfficeMax Inc. No. 11.

    Major trend: smaller stores, fewer SKUs and the rest online.

    Essential for any company that considers a digital transformation. That being said, three simple steps highlighted here hide a more complex requirement: the need to have a digital strategy for the enterprise. If you don't, getting board member will be difficult.

    A lot of people are freaked out by the idea that the NSA has for years been collecting data from ordinary Americans' email accounts. Nobody likes the idea of the feds combing through their email.

    But experts know that it's not the content of individual emails that is the most useful thing to authorities. Rather, it's the metadata.

    Metadata is, literally, "information about the information." Email metadata provides a much broader view of patterns between users, and who is communicating with who, than the text inside any individual email would.

    If you want to identify terrorist networks, the metadata is what you really want, not access to the inside of a few suspects' accounts. (Although that might come later, of course.)

    MIT has been working on a project called "Immersion" to let you do exactly that with your own email, so that you can see who your closest "collaborators" actually are (and not the ones you'd like to think they are). You sign up at this web site, and let the software arrange your email history into a visual network of the people you communicate with.



    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-mit-project-lets-you-spy-on-your-own-email-metadata-just-like-the-nsa-2013-7#ixzz2YHnDXHZY

    Follw the link to MIT immersion and explore your own network. Very interesting to see it mapped out. Compare it to your LinkedIn network visual map for example, and now you have 

    Inevitable result of fast-moving uncontrolled digital transformation in businesses: too many applications!

    1.      “If you play [your competitor’s] game, you lose every time.” Allan Benton. http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/allan-benton-interview-0909 This quotation to me is all about moats and sustainable differentiation.  If you haven’t read Warren Buffett, Michael Porter and Michael Mauboussin about “moats/sustainable competitive advantage,” well, you are missing out in a huge way.

    Interesting insight that most definately applies to digital transformations.

    Walmart was late in the eCommerce game and now is playing catchup to amazon. I believe companies of all size and industry should ask themselves if digital eCommerce will transform their business. If the answer is yes, they should invest to get in game in order to be ready when the market shifts.

    And CIOs should really be the bearer of this message to the overall organization, especially to the CEO and the board of Directors, which should support the endeavour. Otherwise, ultimately, it will be their fault if they are not ready when the wind shifts.

    Fairly straightforward diagram, useful in that it shows delivery and pickup options side by side.

    Scary but not surprising. Must read for anyone going digital in a big way. Passwords are weak and 2 factor authentication is a must these days. Simple demonstration is given here. Must read.

    Go read the report as well as it is well done
    As part of digital transformation requirement is knowledge of technology. This chart clearly shows this may explain why companies are not transforming fast enough.
    For anyone that has read the singularity is near this will make you feel right at home. What is interesting is that this researcher is giving target dates that are not so far in the future.
    In French. Survol des enjeux liés à la géo localisation.

    The findings are sobering: almost half of CEOs view their CIOs as out of step with the business and about the same percentage think IT should be a commodity service, purchased as needed.

    A few years ago, the CIGREF decided to launch an international research program in order “to better understand how the digital world is transforming our lives and our businesses”: the CIGREF Foundation leads the “Information System Dynamics” (ISD).

    As we were celebrating our forty years anniversary last year, a group of CIOs considered the future of the CIGREF and its strategic agenda. What is business in the digital world? What is “digital business”? What is the strategic roadmap from IT strategy to the digital world?

    The CIGREF has adopted a new mission: “promoting digital culture as a source of innovation and performance”.

    This book invites all company executives to develop ambitious digital strategies!

    Just now starting to read the eBook

    Nothing new here. Gartner has been claiming the technology rise of the CMO, websites now cater to the chief marketing technologist and blog post beg for a profound transformation of IT departments to be leaner. But it is always good to hear from a different voice. Maybe with time the message will get across...

    I particularly like

    • Digital Services Unit as a tool to accelerate digital transformation: presents in a concise way the 6 areas that a digital center of excellence should cover. Few organization do this in my experience but as the role of chief digital officer becomes more common in organizations, so will the DSU
    • The department of YES: CIOs and It departments are often ill equipped to handle digital transformation and it is refreshing to see a new breed of CIOs taking the digital transformaion in a positive light. Combined with a DSU this makes for a very potent combination

    This is the Bezos-way. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos invests everything right back into the company. As a result, the net income is flat.

    Amazon must invest everything it has - all its profits - to create the tools, and technologies it needs to be relevant against established retailers.


    It underlines how much companies must invest when they go through their digital transformation: they must be ready to impact income in order to define themselves with digital technologies.

    Testimonu to the difficulty retailers face when introducing digital technologies is the appearance of all those "labs". Walmart, BestBuy and now Target have recently opened them. The idea appears to be: we cannot transform our organization from the inside so let's create a new team and ask them to disrupt our organization with new technologies. These new outfits can use non traditional approaches to their work - agile methodologies, short, iterative design and technology introduction - in order to let them "fail fast" without impacting the rest of the business, or costing too much money. Once a new "formula" is well defined, the idea is to scale it to all the other teams in the organization. 


    Sounds like a great idea, we'll see if they can do it for real.

    One sentence says it all: “Groceries will be the battleground coming to the forefront.”. wow.

    Mobile in stores has enabled showrooming which in turn is flipping the shopping retail model. Before it was: go online to research (tv, cars, etc.) then go in store to buy. Now it is: go in store to browse and try then go online to buy (for less usually). Complete flip of the shopping world, brick and mortar retailers are bracing for online pure plays to steal their lunch.

    Take the 5 minutes to read the email exchange between Harper Collins and Apple on prices of eBooks. It sheds a light on the transformation that digital has on businesses for things as simple as books. A new technology - eBooks - transforms the distribution but also removes a lot of the costs - materials, distribution, remaindering, cost of capital, bad debt, etc. - which forces businesses into different pricing structures.


    Underlying the discussion is the disrupting impact that Amazon has - buys books at 13$, sells online for 10$, author getting 3.30$ - creating a market with their ecosystems of kindle devices and amazon.com platform. Mindblowing.


    Moreover, I appreciate the conciseness of the exchange: to the point, this is what it is. 

    Finally a video that shows glassess beond the simple "take a picture". it presents a number of daily activities, paying for a coffee, scanning barcodes and product images while shopping, adding items as we grocery shop, requesting a taxi cab, tracking calories, or helping someone and calling 911 while having CPR procedure displayed in your field of you, playing the guitar during lessons.


    Video is even better because it comes from a small digital company from Toronto. I like their creativity!


    What is great about the video is the range of opportunities that glass present. Now, who will do the same video but in a work environment?

    Interesting how digital transformation goes right into manufacturing, in one-to-one production of customized goods. This goes along with the 3D printer movement where corporations change not only how they sell but what they sell as well.

    Very much inline with the health flip I am tracking. By looking at data, researcher can define health programmes, drugs, etc. that have a higher potential to be successful as they start with actua data. Moreover, such an approach may help reduce time to market between research and wide use, since the trial period may be shortened due to pre-existing data.

    Sorry for the french posting but I thought it was interesting to show how much digital is transforming the funeral business. Not knowing the field I was surprised to see the offering that exists, and the opportunities that remain. The presentation, although long winded, does provide a number of examples of funeral digital solutions and services - starting at slide 21 

    • mywonderfullife
    • planned departure
    • harmonia
    • tgethr.com
    • recollect.com
    • inmemoriam.be
    • heremus
    • services numerica
    • sympathy store

    What does “inspiration” look like for a retailer? In a nutshell, it’s about storytelling. Noting that successful non-profits inspire and motivate donors through great storytelling, Mehta suggested that retailers ask themselves whether they can differentiate themselves from their customers, influencers and staff. “What if you could give employees the power to curate a collection of your products on your site or even other sites, then allow people like your influencers to put those products in their blogs, across social media, through digital and/or physical displays?” Mehta asked. “That’s inspiration. That’s what will differentiate you from others in our fulfillment-based world.”

    Mehta cautioned that his company is still in stealth mode and still has much to learn in this area, but that early results exceeded the company’s expectations. Thanks to early adopters, as of mid-January, Marketvine had seen an average of 40 percent lift in conversion, a 7-8 percent increase in average order value and an 80 percent improvement in on-site engagement.

    I attended this panel and the Marketvine discussion related here was most interesting. It offered a diffrent way to approach eCommerce where retailers can make their products available for others to showcase. What called curated commerce forces retailers to think about their eCommerce website not onnly as a shopping environment but also as a platform for others to build on top a possibly different shopping experience.


    Few if any technologies exist today to easilly enable retail storefronts with solutions to expose their products but also support curators in displaying, promoting and converting viewers into buyers - and recognizing the curators with a piece of the sale. Amazon offers a similar service via its affiliate program but the solution is dedicated to its store and its members.  This is not sufficient and retailers need new tools to facilitate the curated commerce trend.

    Very interesting read for all of us trying to transform businesses into the digital world. More often than not it goes through a website and this post presents very clear concrete examples of good and bad designs, organized around 5 principles you should follow if you want to persuade your customers to buy from you, hire you, like your brand, etc.

    The video is interesting to watch, especially the beginning where customers can receive their POS ticket along with personalized information. This is a great way to bridge the digital gap between online and offline, the missing link as far as I am concerned. Liberate the POS transaction and make it available to your customers for consumption, data mining and value adding. This a is real digital transformation by retailer for the benefit of customers. Who will be the first retailer to jump?

    Watch out. Walmart has already been at war with other brick-n-mortar retailers. Now it opens a new front with online pure plays like Amazon. The digital transformation behind this is tremendous and I assume would impact most processes and resources, to create a seamless online-offline experience.

    I never digital transformations would all be for the better...

    A mix of french and english presentations on different topics related to eCommerce. I recommend:


    Finally, an honourable mention to Philippe Collard - La gazette / Alexandre Maher - Iburger for Dresser la table pour le futur for a great presentation of videos and a great Q&A.

    I always enjoy Mark McDonald's blog post. This one, has a cryptic title but nevertheless a very interesting underlying message: we have been slow to adopt technology in north america for the past few years (since the 2007 meltdown) and things are bound to change in the future.


    When they do, the pace will be driven by technologies that have grown in adoption since 2007: all things mobile, cloud computing and on-demand solutions in the cloud, tablet devices, high speed 3G and LTE, etc.

    Unfortunately this interview has only a single example but finally it is one that relates to business, healthcare in this case. Additional examples are provided, and they have mostly to do with regards to customer support, or instant help.

    what I find most interesting comments are in the 2nd section, about how "When you wear these glasses for two weeks you get the affordance is totally different and that having these on opens you up to a new commerce world." Scoble believes glass will change commerce and make companies rely less on advertising and more on micro-revenue to help commerce.


    Considering google's 95% revenue is from ads, robert scoble's prediction for the change in google's business model is significant. And it makes sense.

    This is very inspiring for guys like me, professionals of digitial transformation living in themost advanced part of the world. I often find that when I introduce new digital technologies in organizations, the response is most often one of push-back and friction. There is, it seems, little desire to change the way we do things once we have reached a certain level. 


    It is very inspiring to see that, when digital technologie are made available to people that have little, they dive into it with great passion as they see it for what it truly is: a tool to help them grow and improve their lives. It is not without pain or effort, but the reward is so great that it must be done.

    Absolutely a huge trend. Recent NRF show in NYC, curated commerce was very popular topic. Not only are brands and websites positioning themselves, newcomer companies are starting to prepare platforms to facilitate the creation of curated commerce. For example, Dell unveiled a special curated commerce project that will provide the platform for others to enable curated commerce on their website.

    In depth presentation of the Amazon web model

    Interesting insight into the impacts of digital transformation of retail. And as we shy away from stores for more than the necessary showrroming, warehouse fulfillment centers will become more and more the norm. Amazon is leading the digital improvements but it looks like work in Amazon warehouses is very close of its pre-digital days, as far as human tasks are concerned. 


    I spent few summers in the early 1980s working in such a warehouse and the work was very similar, except for the amount of digital technology involved. Not a great place to work but a great incentive to stay in school and study. I'd rather be a microserf than an "amazon-serf"...


    That being saidd, all the warehouse fulfillment workers will get similar pressure to deliver and work under the watchful eye of computer systems that track every moves. It reminds me a of a short 5 minute video on the work of warehouse workers at online grocery chain Ocado in the UK. Although it is a corporate video, the work pace and environment feels eerily similar to that presented in this Amazon blog post.

    Interesting way to look at how digital technologies can help transform hospitals and remove the wait in emergency rooms. Also great demo of a portable ultrasound device that plugs into a cell phone. Impressive!

    3D printing has the potential to revolutionize numerous industries.

    Simple chart that explains the chasm that exists between technology and business users. The biggest value that users of technology see lies in their ability to better compete. If you get out of their way and provide them with tools that accelerate their ability to put technology in use, they will pat for it.


    You can be up-and-running with Salesforce.com in hours when it usually takes months just to get attention from an IT department. You can exchange large files via dropbox when most corporate inboxes are file-size limited and shared folders hidden deep behind firewalls and other protections. Give users simple means to do this, in self-serve mode, and they will be able to pay for it.


    We can make the parallel with user-focussed technology and the Apple-way of doing things. Make it simple, and efficient and people will pay a premium for it.

    Within the same article, an interesting chart on 2013 driver of IT spending, with big data and cloud on top.

    The barriers to entry in your market just vanished. Unexpected competitors are swarming in. Are you ready? 

    McQuivey will show you how Dr. Hugh Reinhoff of Ferrokin BioSciences disrupted the pharmaceutical industry, streamlining connections with doctors and regulators to bring molecules to market far faster—and then sold out for $100 million. How Charles Teague and his team of four people created Lose It!, a weight loss application that millions have adopted, achieving rapid success and undermining titans like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig in the process.

    Regardless of your background and industry, you can learn how to be a digital disruptor too. First, adopt the right mindset: Take risks, invest as cheaply as possible, and build on existing platforms to find the fastest path to solving a customer’s problem. 

    Second, seek the “adjacent possible”—the space just next to yours where new technology creates opportunity. That’s how Benjamin Rubin and Paolo DePetrillo of Zeo created a $100 sleep monitor that does much of what you’d get from a $3,000 sleep lab visit.

    Finally, disrupt yourself. Use these tools to make parts of your business obsolete before your competitors do. That’s what Tim FitzRandolph did at Disney, creating a game that shot to the top of the app store charts.

    With the tools in this book you can assess your readiness, learn the disruptive mindset, and innovate rapidly, starting right within your own business.

    The title is just right, the trailer interesting. Let's see if this delivers!

    Digital disruption requires rethinking the entire business, not just one’s technology portfolio. It requires first thinking and then behaving like a digital disruptor. Digital disruptors depend on very specific tendencies and patterns, each of which I painstakingly describe in my upcoming book (available February 26th). Briefly summarized, these are:

    1. A tendency to use and create free or nearly free digital tools.
    2. Aggressive exploitation of digital platforms provided by companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google.
    3. Happy surrender to the bold idea that the customer is ultimately in charge of your strategy.
    4. The preference to innovate through rapid, focused pursuit of adjacent consumer benefits (rather than overengineering products or services to fulfill a long-term vision cooked up at a brainstorming offsite).
    5. A habit of partnering promiscuously to deliver these benefits quickly and at low cost.

    Digital disruptions = Digital transformation? I will read the book and find out!

    Sheds an interesting light onto the digital transformation that should occur in the Sourcing world, specifically around the produrement of software applications. In the old days it was easy to make an inventory of the software applications in an organization: simply report what software is installed on all the computers and you have an exact count.


    Nowadays, business users rely more and more on cloud-based software, applications and solutions - Google apps, salesforce.com, dropbox, evernote, basecamp, etc. - the software is either in the cloud or on a user's personal laptop or tablet. No simple way to make an inventory.


    More often than not, companies pay the bill without knowing exactly what they get for it, as the products are bought using personal credit cards and expensed by employees.


    How are these software application tracked by the IT or the finance department in order to get a big picture view of the company software spend? How can sourcing negotiate volume discount rates for dropbox if it is not aware that hundreds or thousands of employees have purchased it? How can IT ensure corporate security and privacy guidelines are respected when users place confidential documents on external document sharing solutions?


    I think of delivery services but also of sales reps, and how glass could transform their daily lives. All the technologies have been there for a while - GPS, cell phone, live traffic feeds, detailed maps - but what glass does is change the proximity, from something that you have - in-car garmin GPS - or that you carry - Android cell phone - to something that you constantly wear and have in front of your eyes - litterally.

    Chief executives increasingly plan to increase their information technology spending in 2013 and 2014 as they ponder digital strategies, according to a Gartner survey.

    Gartner's survey, based on 390 senior business leaders at companies with $250 million or more, found that CEOs by a four-to-one ratio plan to boost IT spending in 2013. Indeed, 78 percent of CEOs said they can plan their 2013 and 2014 IT investments and business growth.

    What's driving the IT spending bullishness? Gartner argues that companies are forming digital strategies. Fifty two percent of business leaders said they have a digital strategy to fuel e-commerce, mobile, cloud and social plans.

    The return for these digital strategies may rhyme with Starbucks' master plan, which revolves around using its own brand to spend less on marketing.

    Other key items from the Gartner survey:

    • 19 percent of CEOs said they expected to employ a chief digital officer by 2014.
    • 17 percent of CEOs expected to hire a chief data officer.

    The upshot is that CEOs appear to understand that existing IT budgets won't fuel growth. What's unclear is where the technology spending budgets will head. Chief marketing officers and line of business executives are expected to increasingly have their own IT budgets.

    Digital transformations won't happen without money and IT budgets are not sufficient to fuel the growth. CMOs will spend more than CIOs by 2017 said Gartner last year. This gives rise to new concepts, from chief digital officers to chief marketing technologists. This is a very good thing as it will speed deployment of digital technologies. However, without a major transformation in the roles and responsibilities of CIOs - where they should play a bigger in architecture and data governance and less on server hugging - , this may lead to technology chaos. Interesting times ahead...

    There are three types of primary recruiting content you should focus on.

    1. Why not create SEO optimized video vacancies and use those in place of or in association with a written JD?  (According to the statistics presented here, job related web pages with video as opposed to just text are now 53 times more likely to show up on the first page of text results.) Talent will now be able to go directly to your video channel job vacancies making it a clear primary recruitment channel. Interviews with hiring managers make great content for this type of job video.
    2. Create some advice and training videos relating to applying for jobs and interviewing for jobs at your company and for specific positions within your company. By using these company specific or at least position/industry specific videos, you can attract qualified potential talent directly to your YouTube career channel. Consider these “how-to” videos, making it easy for candidates to understand your hiring process and practices.
    3. Include High Profile Content. If you have any high profile products, services, employees or anything which stands out, then build an employer branding video around this and once again this could attract qualified talent directly to your YouTube Channel. Focus on matching content to the audience for which you want to engage. For example, if your company is building a mobile app, have a Product Manager discuss the last mobile app they built and focus on the success and lessons learned.

    I zlways look for digital flip opportunities. Here I believe that using YouTube or other video streaming channels are great ways to improve the recruitment process. If combined with other transformations in the recruitment process, this can indeed lead to a real flip. Nevertheless, videos are great way to improve the recruitment process and, if anything, differentiate organizations.


    I worked wit Bombardier on their HR career improvements in the past where they created such a career youTube channel. It is a  start and when combined with attractive product videos, can help turn watchers into applicants.

    Focus on specific age group via microsite and curated commerce is a trend that Amazon again leads.

    CEFRIO has published new numbers on QC online transactions. B2B number will be published later this year.

    Great 7 step guide to cloud strategy. What I find useful there is that it provides business executives with an easy checklist to prepare before engaging with technology professionals. Baically, it is "know your business". When you do know where you stand and what it costs - whether it is for cloud computing, web, ecommerce, mobile, social, or any other new technology - you are in much better shoes to invest and make the digital transformation happen.

    Recently, I interviewed a half dozen top service design agencies to better understand how they work with enterprise architects and business architects inside the client firms they serve. All of the agencies I interviewed focus on helping their clients transform customer experience and introduce new products and services. 

    I am looking forward to the Forrester reports. It will be interesting to see the recommendations that Forrester will bring to help bridge the "gap" between business and IT.

    French infographics and website that provides information on the classroom flip, first presented by Salman Khan and the Khan academy. They have received huge attention when Bill Gates, Google founders invested in the foundation and then were covered in a 60minutes interview on the future of education


    I believe the flip is an amazing example of the potential transformations that digital technologies offer businesses. I generalize the concept into what I call the Digital Flip. More on this in the future...

    Hennes & Mauritz AB, looking to shrug off lower earnings and five months of same-store sales declines, outlined plans to expand aggressively this year and get an U.S. online shopping presence running this summer.


    H&M continues to refine an online-sales model for the U.S.

    "Things are changing very quickly," said H&M's head of investor relations, Nils Vinge. "Especially with the ability to shop on smartphone apps, you have to be online to take part today."

    Mr. Vinge said as the September online launch approached last year, the company realized that it had underestimated the complexity of operating in a market where taxes vary by state, shoppers expect free shipping and the return of goods is standard procedure.

    "We couldn't just copy and paste the online shops that we operate in Europe," Mr. Vinge said. "Our volumes are so large, and the demands on us are equally large."

    Another eCommerce story but behind it a good indication that going online requires special care and there is no way to apply a global model to eCommerce worldwide. Taxes, regulations, and customer expectations vary widely and must be accounted for in the strategy and execution.

    Over a surprisingly brief period, the use of social tools and technologies has grown from limited experimentation at the edge of corporate practice to what’s now the mainstream. But after this strong initial uptake, many companies find themselves at a crossroads: if they want to capture a new wave of benefits, they’ll need to change the ways they manage and organize themselves, according to the results from our sixth annual survey on the business use of these technologies.1 A remarkable 83 percent of respondents say their companies are using at least one social technology, and 65 percent say employees at their companies access at least one tool on a mobile device. Ninety percent of executives whose companies use social technologies report measurable benefits from these tools, and what’s more, a small yet growing number of companies—the most skilled and intensive technology users—are racking up outsize benefits.2

    I've been tracking this study for the past 4 years and find it extremely useful because it gives actual measure on the benefits of using social within the enterprise - what was called nterprise2.0 in the early days. 

    Although the survey shows some benefits plateau, it doesdemonstrate that  reductions in costs for communication and travel are achieved. In certain cases the savings can be significant. In certain industries, increase in the speed to access information or internal experts can turn into business benefits with measurable value in sales or competitiveness.

    Big data is being hailed as the next differentiator. It has been leveraged in Marketing quite a bit but this short video gives insight on how it can be applied to more in depth financial processes, in this case underwriting. It gives predictive information, knowledge that can be leveraged before a client calls or walks into a bank. It gives sales reps and financial planners insight into customer behaviour and possibly better targets offers, promotions, and may even give you better - or worse - discounts. 

    Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have teamed up to form the Glass Collective. 

    We’re excited by the promise of the Glass platform. Developers are already dreaming up new experiences for Glass, and we want to help bring those ideas to life.

    The Glass Collective investment syndicate will provide financing and support to entrepreneurs shaping the future through Glass.

    I agree glass has tremendous potential. But after listening to the 1hr SXSW Google glass video demo I find there is even more of a need for such a fund. Developing apps and devices for this is not going to be easy. It will require focus and expertise to make it a superior non intruisive experience.


    But lying in its wake are potentials to digitize, optimize or even flip certain business processes as I've stated in earlier posts. Think for example what impact on sales a salesforce.com on glass could be, able to do facial recognition and then match with tons of web data to provide sales teams with tools that could make them more powerful. They could even bring up a video feed into their office, and have sales engineers or even the COO give special instructions live during a sales meeting. It could litterally transform the sales process. But it will take a lot of effort to find and deliver this "glass killer app".

    When I ran for Mayor as a performance project back in 2005, part of my platform (as founder and sole member of The Blog Party) was free, citywide, public wifi and in-home broadband Internet as a public utility like water, gas, etc. Neither of those things has happened yet. But I also promised more transparency, accountability and access by increasing mayoral use of the Internet as a communications platform, open data sharing including budget numbers and insight into the workings of government. To give credit where credit is due, between 311, the highly functional and easy-to-use NYC.gov, the NYC Open Data site, My Money NYC and Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne Haot‘s twitter feed, Michael Bloomberg has done a hell of a job as the city’s first 21st Century Mayor.


    In my previous essay I floated a few “blue sky” scenarios that, in this light, may not be as crazy as they sound, to wit:

    Rebooting Representation: Imagine a representative democracy that uses big data to create alternate voter sets independent of place? A system that moves beyond the two party binary into either radical individual representation or alternate aggregation structures? Could this include a more complex but transparent system that balances place-based resource allocation and distribution systems with other criteria? What would digital demography and representative democracy actually look like? http://senseable.mit.edu/csa/

    Rebooting Education: Imagine a federally funded and strategically developed K-12 MOOC that centralizes core curriculum but decentralizes place-based education. The MOOC offers a curriculum developed through strategic analysis of knowledge and skills required for maximum jobs and growth nationally. The curriculum is predicated on national standards and taught locally by nationally accredited teachers. Additional coursework, tailored to regional variance and cultural settings, can be implemented on the local level. This curriculum can be provided to home schoolers, self-aggregated small schools that would either hire an accredited teacher or become accredited themselves. Subsidy then becomes available for these smaller, independent classrooms and bricks and mortar schoolhouses become an option, not a necessity. Government scales back its involvement in the expensive business of maintaining bricks and mortar facilities and top-heavy, bloated administrative structures while guaranteeing access to education to all and insuring at least a minimum level of preparedness for students in the 21st Century.

    Interesting if a bit long and off-topic for this scoop.it log, the article presents a number of transformations, some underway others only possibilities, that I find interesting. Moreover, this covers industries and subject areas that I do not usually cover.

    Amazing 60 minute video that highlights both

    1- how "demo or die" is the right way to introduce digital business transformations

    2- how large organization can go about transforming their intranet and international communications globally, and the business value that it brings

    Overall this is a very good presentation delivered by an outstanding presentor that is worth watching, although not all worth listening to.

    Showrooming may become a major disruption for established retailers. As customers flip their shopping patterns to go in store first then buy online, retailers should see showrooming as a blessing in disguise. They have the physical presence, the stores, which Amazon does not. It is much easier for them to open price competitive online stores and modify the store merchadising - and maybe size - to offer the best of both worlds. But this has a cost and require a huge change in their processes and people.


    After all it may be easier for Amazon to open showrooms...

    I often find this way of thinking - outside the box yet systematic - very useful in looking for digital flip opportunities.

    Look at all these apps, devices and gadgets that are available in 2012. I believe that 2013 will see an Apple iWatch with integrated sensors and other health tracking and measurement tools. It will create a new chapter in Apple's iDisruptions book: digital biofeedback. You wear it all day and it helps you live better, feel better, live longer, be healthier. Would make so much more sense than just a iOS timekeeper or wrist phone, no?

    Information de référence utile pour les technologues francophones.

    What strikes me most in there is the overwhelming part that telecom and devices play in the overall budget when business users - marketing, customer support, HR, distribution, manufacturing - are looking at their IT for innovative new digitial solutions: eCommerce, digital payment, collaboration tools, automation, etc. The expectation is that these new technologies will be able to leverage existing systems in the organization - ERP, POS, corporate databases - to extend them with new tools and systems - social networks for marketing, professional netowrks for HR, video conferencing for sales, etc. 


    But the IT groups remain stuck in the past, focussing most of their budgets on internal systems and solutions. This may explain the rise of technology spend by groups other than the CIO. See Forbes Five years from now CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs

    This is not strictly a "business" digital transformation but it does show how much project management can benefit from going digital.


    I am a consultant and thus have to manage multiple projects in parallel, one or more per client. Some large corporations have Project Management Office (PMO) with dedicated project managers and all the tools they require. Yet, in most small and medium businesses, projects are managed with a pen-and-paper, maybe with an excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Project and a shared dropbox folder. Very few leverage collaboration tools - Google docs - or simple project management tools - Trello, Basecamp, Podio and many others - to help coordinate their teams.


    Going back to the wedding tech article, what is most interesting beyond the technologies used is how this can help transform the way weddings are documented and memories are preserved with the contribution of everyone attending. Isn't something we would like more in business projects we run? I think so.

    Google glass + facial recognition will have a profound impact on the way people will interact with strangers in a business setting. Facial recognition will certainly be built within the devices early in their life, which will give access to information on a previously never seen scale. In a recent article in The Economist, a third of a random set of 93 Carnegie Mellon students were recognized using facial recognition software and facebook profile photos.


    But the thing is, I never remember names or exactly where I've met people previously in a business context. Being able to have their name and other information popup discretly in my google glasses as I pass them by in the hallways has a definite appeal. And I suppose I am not very different than other colleagues of mine. This thing will sell.

    Nothing new here but a reminder that the digital world offers new ways of improving processes to be leaner and more attractive. New twist on old ideas? Probably, but the interest that venture capital firms are putting on this field makes me think that something's happening.


    That being said, building a new brand name is difficult as is highlighted in the article.

    With the introduction of new tools such as the talent pipeline features within LinkedIn recruiter, it becomes easier to flip the recruitment process and perform candidate sourcing long before job requisitions are opened. Not only does this improve time-to-hire and cost-per-hire metrics, it transforms the recruitment process by growing access to "passive" candidates which are know to be of higher quality than "active" ones.

    But in order to benefit from this recruitment "flip", talent acquisition professionals and HR department very often must transform their processes and re-skill their resources. This change often is difficult as the competencies for this novel recruitment sourcing approach breaks with the face-to-face interview process that most HR professionals are used to. I find that it is this cultural change that is most difficult to change, not the technology itself or the work re-organization that ensues.

    I've thinking abot this for a long time: an Apple watch only makes sense if wearing it provides you with information you do not already have. The real transformation would be that an iWatch would combine all different kind of sensors and monitors and combine them with communication and applciations you find in an iphone.

    You can wear a watch 24 hours a day on your skin. Because of that it can monitor in real-time your temperature, heartbeat, glucose levels, sleep patterns, position, speed, etc. and communicate all that info to services. I would expect to see an iHealth service for seniors or people suffering from diabetes, raising an alarm automatically when sensors detect an anormal situation. Or an iProtect program that would act as a generic "panic button" or "personal 911" in case of trouble.

    Of course this needs to fit into a 3cm square profile and have a one-week battery capacity, but I believe these are all solvable problems. Whether they willbe solved in 2013 by Apple is the real question!

    Search Engine Optimization - SEO - is the blackart of making sure a website returns in the first results of a google search. Most digital transformations have a web component that requires decent search results position so I believe this story is very interesting. Follow the links provided by the author to learn more about this subject.

    Cartoonish as infographics often are, yet provides insight into the evolution that recruitment has gone through over the past 4 decades. The focus is the change on the day-to-day activities of the recruitment professional.


    The digital transformation also has impacted the selection process itself, with an avalanche of resumes made available through job boards and the ability for recruiters to perform pre-interview background checks, testing and other professional validations. This has the potential to cut down in the number of interviews performed.


    More interesting however would be for recruiters to "flip" recruitment around by hunting for potential candidates using social networks rather than waiting for them to apply for positions. This would be the next step in recruitment evolution.

    All traditional businesses should be looking at Walmart and getting fired up about digital transformation. Call it digital strategy by proxy.


    Walmart fears that Amazon will become the de facto destination for online shopping, same way Google is the default for search.


    Google translated its search supremacy into a 40B$ ad business. Amazon could transform its online shopping supremacy into a 300B$ business. That would hurt Walmart. Not now but tomorrow (ie. in the next 5-10 years)


    That is why Walmart is initiating the most profound digital transformation in the retail world. And all other retailers shuld take note and do the same.

    Most of us will gladly supply our location data in order to have access to location-based promotions, reductions, coupons and other incentives. But unlike web browsing data, which can remain anonymous, location data actually reveals who you are.

    Also read Michael Elling comment and look back at my previous post which basically said that customers do not want same-day delivery.


    That being said, there may be other good reasons why Google would like to enter same-day delivery: google self-driving cars. Google has a unique technology that can totally disrupt same-day deliveries by putting self-driving delivery vans on the streets. With those the economic model of same-day may become profitable. Moreover, Google may want to partner with local delivery firms, providing them with the infrastructure - Internet service plus self-driving tech - and let them go their way. They remain, after all, an engineering company.

    Wal-Mart, with its recent wal-mart labs creation, may do for digital transformation what it has done for supply chain in the 70s. It is turning its physical stores into an asset to compete against online pure-plays such as Amazon.

    The French insurance industry appears to be slow to adopt digital processes, and even slower to transform its processes. From the panel discussion we can extract the useful nuggets that may apply to other industries as well:

    • legal constraints in France and much of Europe slow down digital transformations. I suspect this may be true for other industries that deal with private aspects of our lives: insurance, finance, HR recruitment, medical, etc.
    • panel members all appear to approach transformation from a "digitization" aspect: converting paper processes to a digital format using web, ipads or electronic signatures. Few discuss process optimizations or true "digital flips". 

    The Walgreens case study is a sign of the times because most brick-n-mortar retailer ar embarking in an omni-channel transformation to stay relevant in the face of online pure-plays like Amazon as they break down the barriers of eCommerce sales without a physical presence. BestBuy is doing it, Walmart is doing it and I assume most other retailers are thinking about it given the evel of interest around the topic at the recent NRf show in NYC.

    What we can learn from Walgreen is that physical presence should not be a bad thing if you embrace digital technologies - mobile, eCommerce, showrooming, store pickup of internet orders, etc. - to differentiate your offering from pure plays by leveraging your physical presence to offer improved customer service (that's the omni-channel part). If you don't and try to compete on price, as is mostly the case now, pure plays will win because they do not have to support a network of stores with employees and cash registers.

    This paper raises very good questions related to sales tax for retailers with an omni-channel presence. 

    More a technology innovation than someting that will transform businesses, I figured this would be interesting to know for most of my readers given that we all use a keyboard to interact with our devices. Plus, this is a Canadian startup which has tremendous growth potential. See the 2 min video, well worth it, especially towards the end.

    Very interesting account of the challenges that print publications face when going digital. Aside from obvious economic constraints and an elusive business model, what strikes me more are the comments regarding the streamlined editorial process and the readers emphasis on fact checking. They both highlight the fact that digital transformation has forced the Times to revisit its internal processes and make them more efficient in light of the technology that provides more real time capabilities than print does. But it is true the emphasis on fact checking and data validation that the biggest transformation may happen. It introduces new ways to crowdsourced fact checking which may make the editorial work easier but shifts some power from the journal to its readers.
    Discussions around google glass remains speculative until the product ships in 2014. This article however provides interesting review of opportunities and potential issues of wearable head mounted displays. Still, I'd like to see a similar paper on potential business applications for this technology. What will glass allow businesses to do that was not possible before? Glass brings low cost, internet connected device with potentially a very large App Store of prewired solutions.

    No surprise, eCommerce is growing in France and other European states. The eCommerce digital transformation is in full swing and businesses should soon start to get with it to remain competitive. But there is still time.


    Numbers are for 2011 but raise interesting data:

    • <1% of 100K websites generate over than 10K orders per month: vast majority (70%+) generate less than 100.
    • B2B is playing catch-up to B2C, with 35% of business buying online
    • UK is leading European countries in eCommerce

    Interesting announcement for businesses thinking of going digital because it helps highlight the difference between digitization, optimization and business transformation or "digital flip". Let me explain.


    Putting paper maps onto digital screens is great because it provides a means for always accurate maps, along with additional and potential real-time overlay of information. Touchscreen interface makes it even better as it allows users to interact and get personalized information. But in principle the process has not changed: it has merely been digitized.


    Questions should be raised, as they are by @luigi cappel, on how to improve the user's life using these new maps, for example by linking the them to mobile phone apps or automated payment systems. This is what I call "digital optimization", as it makes the process of getting to your destination on the subway more efficient.


    Now compare that to the NYC city developed 311 mobile app. It crowdsources the information gathering of NYC problems - potholes, grafitis, restaurant issues, etc. - and provides the city officials not only with digital, real-time, and geolocated information of issues but actually "flips" the city maintenance model. It puts the users in control of gathering and prioritizing the work of city workers. It gives them a voice and transforms their relationships. And that is a true innovation.


    In closing, let me point you to the NYC digital roadmap. Launched in 2012, it provides a strategy for going digital that remains relatively unique at this time.

    As I walked up to the register at a Starbucks in lower Manhattan, I took out my smartphone, told the barista I'd like to pay with Square, and then scanned my iPhone and walked out. It was seamless. Easy. And took less time than for the customer in front of me, who fumbled with quarters and had to wait for change when paying for her coffee.

    Going digital is difficult and this piece highlights an important fact: being first often means investing more heavily in change management. 

    Going digital often means doing everything to enable your customers to leverage the digital bits you work so hard to provide them with. In particular, in-store wi-fi may fit into an omni-channel strategy to ensure customers can reach out to your eCommerce site if they go in-store for showrooming (do not expect that 3G cell coverage is good in your store, especially if you are in a mall or some other large building).


    Moreover, you may find this cuts down on the 3G data plan costs if you provide or reimburse your employees for their cell phone or other mobile devices. It may actually save you money. 

    If you are ready to embrace life after the death of the newsprint flyer, I recommend two key first steps:

    1) Get the basics right. Use data from a loyalty program to understand your customers. Be able to discern promotions that work from those that fail. Bordering on shocking is the number of retailers that aren’t able to say which promotions work, who are the key customers, and which promotions drive the right items and the right categories to the right customers.
    2) Focus on alternative promotions. Start testing them now. Instead of 16-page flyers that go into the Saturday mailbox, deliver 1-1 targeted flyers delivered to a mobile phone, via email, the web or social media.

    Don’t wait until the day until the flyer is not working at all. Get started now to build a true 1-to-1 relationship that creates not merely a satisfactory but dazzling experience for your customer and drives emotional loyalty to your brand.

    We all know printed flyers will disappear the same way yellow pages have. Flyers will slowly drop in popularity until they disappear quite fast: this is what happened with yellow pages. Multiple external disruptions came into play (google, google maps, mobile, 3G, ipad, etc.) and converged to make YP usage useless, which resulted in what looked like sudden drop in usage. But in fact this could have been predicted years in advance. Problem is we don't know when the sharp drop will happen, and thus we postpone difficult digitization and optimization processes because the "traditional", mechanical or printed version, still works for most people. Businesses instead should use the time to test the new way and prepare for the time when it actually comes.

    Findings from two companies that apply science to try to decrease online shopping fraud and increase sales.

    This morning, I covered the launch of Sift Science, a brainy startup from ex-Googlers that’s applying machine learning to detect fraud patterns in online retail.

    Sift Science co-founder Brandon Ballinger told me that during beta testing with services like Airbnb and Uber, his company had observed a million different signals that flag any one buyer as a potential fraudster.

    For instance, beware of people who try to buy something with a Yahoo email account — they’re twice as likely as the norm to be fraudsters — but users of AOL and Outlook.com email domains are much more likely to be safe.

    siftScience service leverages multiple websites data to find patterns of fraudulent behaviour. An optimized version of a process that was once done offline and with much less information.

    Shoplocket is a web service, available since over a year, that allows anyone to sell products online in a very simple and straightforward way.


    Here's is how it works. You first enter details for the product you want to sell, and select from a variety of designs for your web listing. The "sale page" is now ready to be published on the web and to be easily shared on all major social networks.


    Finally, as orders roll in you get free automatic notifications inside your email inbox.


    Other key features include:


    Analytics
    See how many times your product is being viewed. Always know where your sales are coming from.


    Cross Platform Compatibility
    Embed ShopLocket products anywhere you’d embed a Youtube video including sites based on Facebook, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Posterous.


    Templates choice
    ShopLocket comes packed with a variety of styles for you to choose from.


    Shipping & Taxes
    ShopLocket gives you the option to configure shipping fees and add a tax rate.


    Product Variants
    Selling tshirts? We let you add a product variant (For example: Size, Color, Style etc)


    Inventory Tracking
    Option to turn on Inventory Tracking and publicly display quantity remaining.


    Timed Deals
    Option to turn on an Expiration Date or Countdown.

    N.B.: Shoplocket keeps only 2.5% of your sales price, while PayPal and Stripe both charge 2.9% + 0.30cents for each sale made through their platform.



    Free to sign-up to: https://www.shoplocket.com/ 


    Example at work: http://ladieslearningcode.com/swag


    Pricing: https://www.shoplocket.com/pricing


    More info: https://www.shoplocket.com/about


    Democratization is a huge component of digital transformation and this is s great example. It provides a simple yet effective way for small businesses or intrapreneurs to sell a few products online: gift baskets, overstock, books or software. Very easy to do it makes first entries into eCommerce very easy. Moreover it recognizes that social networks play a huge part in the promotion of products and services.

    The availability of low cost, easy to use, easy to integrate sensors is part of the bigger trends called Internet of Things. It promises to revolutionize our world by digitizing a large portion of the world that was previously run by mechanical means or pen-and-paper.


    As with all things digital, business users will have the opportunity to go beyond digitize and to optimize or transform their ways of doing using them. For example, with these temperature sensors, the food industry can include them in delivery containers to digitize temperature monitoring and guarantee that "cold chain" is maintained. Digitize an existing process, but not much has changed.


    More advanced retailers would leverage the real-time availability of temperature data to optimize their energy consumption and derive financial benefits. Finally, revolutionary players could transform their industry by making temperature monitoring a pre-requisite of deliveries, using a network of sensors to predict in advance that conditions are OK.

    I find myself going back to this website and blog as inspiration and guidance for visualization as I find that putting information into images has really become much more affordable. This represents a major transformation in the way we communicate. Flowingdata always brings very interesting blog posts that highlight very useful, sometimes intriguing, ways of presenting information in a non-textual way.


    I find the reference and the books also provide very useful guidance.

    Not sure that this new service will transform the broadcast industry but it certainly makes you think about it. Grab over-the-air signals that are available everywhere and broadcast them - freely - over the Internet without paying dues or fees. Sounds like cheating but hey, if it is *possible* at some time someone will do it.


    That is why I consider this more a digitization than a transformation of broadcast: digitize the signal to whatch it on your ipad. The first step. True transformation of broadcast comes when you do things like tivo or better netflix, when you can elect to watch what you want when you want, whether it is broadcast or recorded or movies.

    Interesting when you compare this with the Boston Consulting survey on same-day delivery which basically says that retailers are embracing same-day delivery but that customers really don't care about it.

    “Instagram for us is huge — the engagement on Instagram is through the roof,” said Steve Hartman, managing director of direct and marketing at Urban Outfitters, Philadelphia.

    “Just looking earlier today, we posted a picture of shoes in the office, and it got 40,000 likes on Instagram immediately,” he said. “So that one is really about us inspiring the customer and also showing that it goes back to the personality of the brand.”

    Great example of usage of social media beyond a boring facebook page and followers. People that post photos of themselves are more attached to the brand and the other clients. And this can pply to way more than apparel. Think food - pics of your meals or what you've prepared with groceries you bought - or in a B2B environment pics of usage of front loaders or other mechanical equipments. Lots of opportunities to transform the customer interaction, feedback, commitment, and ultimately sales?

    Interesting point of view. I've started to work standing up 18 months ago and find benefits and some concerns with the concept. I find walking meetings may transform interactions but would face serious head winds in certain conditions: large meetings (more than 3-4) would make conversations difficult, weather (rain, snow) would be a deterrent, etc. But for 2-3 person meetings with few notes and pleasant weather, I think it is a great idea. And with support of technology (mobile phone, google glasses) this can actually be a good thing.

    Very interesting insight, although very thin analysis. I agree healthcare, construction, police, education, travel will be transformed. For sure advertising as well.


    But it looks a lot like the internet in the early days; a new information delivery medium. Little emplhasis seems to be placed on collaboration of what was called 2.0. Maybe we'll have glasses 2.0?

    Amazing. The origins of "Think globally, act locally". Very interesting way to look at organization to give local resources a lot of flexibility and report the right data to higher ups.

    A new report says Amazon makes so much money off Prime customers that the company could drop the annual fee by dozens of dollars and still come out ahead.


    To put that figure in context: Amazon’s average operating income last year per each of its 182 million total customers came to less than $10. In other words, every Prime member is about eight times as valuable to Amazon as a non-Prime member. Put yet another way: More than one-third of Amazon’s profits before interest and taxes came from fewer than four percent of the people who buy stuff on Amazon.

    This story brings forward an interesting aspect of Amazon digital transformation of shopping. Amazon goes beyond the online catalog shopping and into a membership model that moves one-time price sensitive shoppers into everyday ones where margins are much higher.


    Doing so, Amazon increases volumes to bring economies of scale that make them even more competitive with established brick and mortar retailers, which are hard pressed to show the same profitability because they must have *both* a competitive supply chain *and* physical stores. Wow.

    Short 3 min video shows an interesting new tool that Microsoft developed. Even if this does not become a commercial product, the explanation and visual difference between a "typical" broadcast content versus a viral one is very interesting.

    Not sure that I agree that the curated shopping approaches are right but they do raise an interesting question: can the shopping model be "flipped" using digital means?


    The current online shopping model is pretty much the same as the paper-based catalog or in-store shopping experience of the old days: browse a catalog, add items to a cart and then pay. The digitized experience can be more efficient (with searching, reviews, additional information, live help, etc.) but optimized does not mean transformed.


    Can curated shopping transform the experience by having you pay first (for a curator's help), then receive products and return what you don't need or want? May not apply for apparel but maybe that grocery shopping would benefit from that flipped approach? Have an expert (diet guru, coach, famous chef) prepare recipes and a meal plan and automatically send you the appropriate items, along with the other things you need to run a house (cleaners, pet food, etc.).


    What do you think?

    Article points to a number of good marketing and local tools.

    Looks like NYC will be a key market for online grocers to compete. When will Amazon and Walmart move their "fresh" service from the west coast to the east coast?

    Sorry for the french text but it shows the interest with regards to order pickup rather over delivery or shipping.

    Pharma is not a field I know much about. Yet I find it interesting how digital may help transforms the drug development process. This new Pharma tool - InfoDesk - appears to be merely the digitization of pen-n-paper collaboration processes. An improvement but not a revolution.

    It brings back memories of Wired magazine Sergey brin's search for Parkinson's cure where a true digital transformation is proposed. Instead of formulating a theory, then painstakingly verifying its results in year long tests, Brin proposes the analysis of very large patient datasets to "look for patterns" which may suggest good investigation paths. And possibly transform the way drug research is done... as well as providing results much faster. That's what I call digital transformation of the medical/pharma world! From Wired:


    "Brin is after a different kind of science altogether. Most Parkinson’s research, like much of medical research, relies on the classic scientific method: hypothesis, analysis, peer review, publication. Brin proposes a different approach, one driven by computational muscle and staggeringly large data sets. It’s a method that draws on his algorithmic sensibility—and Google’s storied faith in computing power—with the aim of accelerating the pace and increasing the potential of scientific research. “Generally the pace of medical research is glacial compared to what I’m used to in the Internet,” Brin says. “We could be looking lots of places and collecting lots of information. And if we see a pattern, that could lead somewhere.”

    In other words, Brin is proposing to bypass centuries of scientific epistemology in favor of a more Googley kind of science. He wants to collect data first, then hypothesize, and then find the patterns that lead to answers. And he has the money and the algorithms to do it." 

    Very interesting insight that basicaly states that eCommerce, mobile and other new digital technologies are better when they transform the existing functions of the organization - merchandizing, marketing, etc. - rather than create entirely new teams. 


    I would argue that new teams must be created for the period of transition and be part of a center of excellence. Their goals, rather than delivering a new service or offering should in fact be to support existing resources and teams in transforming their skills and processes via training, support, prototype development and many other activities.

    If same-day delivery is something customer want and can be economically viable remains a question. If it is then this short paper implies that local retailers - pharmacies, corner stores, etc. - will be transformed and some will disappear as they will loose their reason to exist.

    You think privacy still exists? Well this video demonstrates quite well that you may already have lost some key personal aspects of your life. What about your business? Are we leaving digital breadcrums that could lead our competitors to insights that would harm our business? most probably the answer is YES...

    Gordon Bell, un pionnier de l’industrie des nouvelles technologies, travaille chez Microsoft  où il explore l’infonuagique et le lifelogging dans le cadre du programme de recherche MyLifeBits mené avec son collègue Jim Gemmell. Lelifelogging, c’est l’art de saisir les données de la vie quotidienne – les images, les sons, les activités, les documents, les conversations, les pensées même, et de les entreposer numériquement.

    Interesting concept of lifelogging. Could we also have the worklogging and what impact would it have on business? Think of healthcare professionals that could record everything they actually say and show to their patients, which could prove immensely powerful in court when malpractice cases are brought forward. It could help both patients incriminate wrongful doctors but also professionals defend themselves when from abusing patients. Or business professionals improve processes by analyzing and comparing the work of multiple individuals, providing actual dsata not just samples.

    I am expecting mine over the next few weeks. Can't wait to try it out. The real interest is in turning any existing computer into a hands-free device, which opens it up to a large consumer base for new and innovative applications. The article and the demos suggest a few interesting applications, such as virtual crafting (coupled with 3D printing could change the arts&craft education) or surgery. I am thinking there are other business applications, such as remote controled machinery such as mining equipment or crane operation in remote places. Opportunity to transform those industries looks positive but there still is a number of components that are required to make this a reality. But we are one step closer.


    nov2015 update: I played with it a few times but now the device gathers dust in a closet. I found controlling the device to be difficult and the apps to be relatively useless. However I've seen youtube videos of designers and music composers that are doing phenomenal things with this. I guess I'm just not in the right field to need this kind of device. I remains a pretty mind blowing device nevertheless!

    Is UK the leading country in a worldwide trend or an aberration? Surely if the USA were to embark on the onnline grocery shopping trend, this would mark a serious impact of online over the physical world. So far however there are no signs of that happening any time soon.

    Read Robin's comments. Then try some of the classes. Very basic or more comple, they provide insight that are essential for businesses that are going digital. Visualization has become very important, with recent flood of infographics (not all good) and visualization toolkits. They are transforming the way the press reports the news in certain cases - The Guardian UK paper even has a section Show and Tell dedicated to it.

    Some classes register 300,000 students. Massive. Great evolution. But not as revolutionary as the Khan Academy could prove to be....

    A true digital transformation: digitization, then optimization followed by transformation. Media industry is at the fore-front because its products can be so easily digitized today: music are videos are now consumed digitally for the most part - no more CDs, DVDs, VHS, etc. They pave the way for what will happen more slowly in other industries.

    Very thin on details - Solis is promotting his new book - still provides an interesting timeline infographics. And a great tagline!

    As ubiquitous as Amazon is in some people's lives, it's still just a tiny fraction of the world's retail sales. Heck, it's still a tiny fraction of e-commerce. This chart from Morgan Stanley puts into context the huge opportunity for Amazon to take more share away from traditional retailers. It's just getting started.

    Always good to put things into perspective. Digital commerce is just starting and there are many opportunities out there to make your mark, innovate or simply grab market share.

    This updated version of the Mobile Retailing Blueprint is a product of the NRF Mobile Retail Initiative. The mission of the Initiative is to be a catalyst for mobile-inspired innovation that enhances the retail shopping experience and improves internal business processes. This retailer-led initiative will guide and direct the industry in the dissemination of mobile-related best practices and the development of standards and documentation for the purpose of maximizing benefits and minimizing implementation expense, ongoing maintenance, and fees.

    Creating this document involved retailers, vendors, analysts, and standards organizations. The Blueprintrelates the shared experiences of retailers and vendors who have experimented with mobile applications, leverages their experience, and tailors it to retail.

    Tremendously rich document that paves the way for retail stores to enhance shopping via mobile solutions.

    A short video that shows how it feels to wear google glasses. Looks like a game changer. How will businesses put it to use? Most examples are for individual use...

    It seems true that the ipad marks the pinacle of changes that have started with the public introduction of the Internet in 1994. An increased level of adoption by executives often means a clearer understanding of the opportunities.


    Take for example the switch from paper documents to electronic ones in boardrooms. The impact of ipads is tremendous and over a few years most board of directors have switched to electronic distribution of documents, often on ipads. Not that it was not possible before to do it on laptop but ipads made it easy. With executive adoption you get a much faster transformation as they understand the benefits and want to have the electronic documents in their briefcase rather than the stacks of papers. 

    What is even more interesting comes midway through the article: BestBuy still sells a lot of stuff, so even though there are challenges ahead the bulk of sales today remain in stores.


    "It’s the biggest PC retailer, the biggest independent phone retailer, and the largest camera retailer in the world. It sells more tablets than any other retailer—including Apple. Last year, Best Buy clocked $50 billion in sales, roughly the same as in 2010. That’s about 50 percent more than the next-largest consumer-electronics retailer, Walmart. Analysts estimate that Amazon does just about $14 billion in annual electronics sales."

    I have been asked by boards to work with the internal audit team on technology assessments in the past and I see this topic being discussed more and more. As the world moves to the digital age this should become more and more pervasive and I believe annual reports should, at least in some form, report on the technological status of the corporations in the same way they do on the financial aspects.

    Great reference guide for project managers and business people with little experience, it presents the steps that organizations should consider when changing or redesigning their Internet website.

    There are multiple images and a great video with the product designer and manager. Great interview and review from someone outside of Google on this new product.


    Use of the glasses appears to be fairly basic: take pictures/videos, read emails, navigate to a destination. In themselves, each or all could become killer apps for personal use of the device. 


    Question I ask is: are there killer apps in a business context? Warehouse personnel already wear devices to help them pick the right products. Sales teams use CRM & SFA tools to prepare for meetings. But what about being able to recognize someone's face, then lookup his LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter and company feeds for the latest info (that's been done BTW in an experiment). Great for sales reps who need to remember, on the spot, personal informations about people they meet. Or police officers to look for criminals in a crowd (as will be the case in the upcoming 2014 soccer world cup). What do you think?Could there be applications that transform business? I am thinking they would require hands-free or connectivity to outside resources. Am I missing something?

    Wearable technologies will bring digital to a new personal level. The cell phone you have to carry but these you wear all day. They can help transform individual lives with health monitors but also enhance workers that work in harsh or hazardous environments - miners, construction workers, delivery personnel, etc.

    It makes sense that high-end brands - Estée Lauder, Lancôme, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Chanel - would try to leverage their customer's phones to provide more information. This helps further blend the physical and digital worlds.

    This is so true and I believe Brian present a convincing case for rethinking the technology selection process. Then again, in certain cases, heis approach falls short but overall it is much better than the traditional RPF process.

    I agree the RFP approach rarely works. I think we have devised a better approach. More on this in a later post.

    This demonstrates that physical presence remains important in the digital world. But the experience can be transformed, as is the case in Apple stores that combines product demonstrations, classes, service - genius bar - as well as instant availability of products - no delivery delays. Moreover, with an Apple account, you can leave without a paper invoice - it gets emailed to you.

    Working off an advance copy of the report, The New York Times followed the trail to buildings in Shanghai believed to house the unit. When the Times encountered persistent attacks from Chinese hackers last year, it worked with Mandiant to monitor and block the intrusions.

    While Chinese officials have dismissed the claims of state-sponsored hacking as “groundless”, numerous media organizations, including Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, and companies have come forward to state that they faced similar attacks.

    This is a very technical posting with  links to an even more technical report. Not for the faint at heart, I thought it was appropriate as digital transformations must address the concerns of security and privacy and take them seriously.


    Moreover, the supposed Chinese government involvement does not mean threats are only for military operations. As the NYTimes incident highlights, private companies are also targetted, either directly as is the NYTimes for their "snooping around and asking questions", but also because hackers will try to infiltrate legitimate businesses for use as go betweens in their attacks.


    And after reading the latest Tom Clancy book Threat Vector, I thought his insight into a Chinese-led hacking unit based in Shanghai may just be too much!

    Interesting to apply the principle of software companies to non technology organizations. If Procter&Gamble, Nike and others can do it, why not grocery retailers as well?


    For example, they could view their transaction logs as information that can be made available to other companies so they could build new, value-added services such as nutritional advice solutions for their customers? Today services like mint provide a very basic financial service but it could go so much further if banks would foster adoption by third parties.

    Here again we find that digital not only changed the way books are created by replacing manual tasks with digital ones (think using word instead of pen & paper), but it actually changed the way books are written. Digital allows a collaboration between authors and readers that the publisher must accept, support and foster. That is where the transformation may be the most difficult.

    At our symposia in Barcelona, Orlando and Gold Coast – I presented my maverick research called “Stop Hiring People; Start Hiring Clusters”. The core idea behind it is that companies should hire pre-formed teams who have learned to work together and have their own tools and work practices, but to hire that team as a permanent asset of the company. This is different to teams of consultants, in that the team is a permanent part of the company. It is different to conventional employment, in that the company doesn’t have a relationship with the individuals in the team, only with the cluster – based on outcomes. The cluster is entirely self-managing – in the extreme case hiring and firing its own members and apportioning remuneration amongst its members, without the knowledge of the company.

    This is a very interesting approach to take with regards to team management in highly dynamic and evolving areas where resources within the organization are not up-to-date, as is often the case with digital fields (eCommerce, social recruiting, IT architecture, etc.). In those areas, fidning and hiring a "cluster" of individuals instead of the individuals themselves may lead to much higher productivity and reaching goals much faster.


    But this requires an organization that is ready to hire clusters ad make it happen. Inquire more in this HBR article from the original Gartner paper.

    Wow, this is indeed right. How democratization of video production and delivery will impact and transform, not just reduce costs.

    Digital certainly transforms elections with use of social media and advertising. Not clear there is a correlation between online ad spend and winning but surely it is important t consider in the total mix.

    References to companies across multiple industries gives credibility to this survey.

    As we see a shift towards greater digital relationships between customers and organisations, the risks associated with customer relationships are changing and no risk is more front-of-mind at the current time than data security.  Sony recently lost the personal data of some 77million accounts from their PlayStation Network including names, email addresses, birth dates, log in details, passwords and possibly credit card details.  The organisation behind the breach is yet to be confirmed but what is beyond doubt is that Sony have a long road ahead of them when it comes to rebuilding consumer trust (perhaps shown by the significant loss they reported this week.

    Of course the digital transformation will increase the security risk of enterprises, and that must be addressed and stressed.

    Would be interested in comparing Canadian population density with that of USA and then of Europe to see the differences. Would also be very interested in comparing the store density between the countries. Then look at the availability of USA online retailers that deliver to Canada easily.


    I think it would help get a better picture and explain why we are so much behind in ecommerce here in Canada. But this map is a great reminder of our geographic reality.

    Interesting to see how companies like 1-800-flowers are leveraging social networks and mobile to generate revenues and spend large amounts to advertize online.

    Salman Khan's educational website of 2,400 video lessons could be the solution to middle-of-the-class mediocrity.

    ...

    Initially, Thordarson thought Khan Academy would merely be a helpful supplement to her normal instruction. But it quickly become far more than that. She’s now on her way to “flipping” the way her class works. This involves replacing some of her lectures with Khan’s videos, which students can watch at home. Then, in class, they focus on working problem sets. The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids’ own time and homework is done at school. It sounds weird, Thordarson admits, but this flipping makes sense when you think about it. It’s when they’re doing homework that students are really grappling with a subject and are most likely to need someone to talk to. And now Thordarson can tell just when this grappling occurs: Khan Academy provides teachers with a dashboard application that lets her see the instant a student gets stuck.

    This is a perfect example of digital transformation. By leveraging YouTube videos and self-evaluation web tools, Khan has managed to transform education and hopefully make it better. He did not simply replace an existing classroom presentation with a recorded one but actually managed to change the "way" teaching is done. He changed the "process" with digital tools. That's the transformation.


    How can businesses apply this "flipping" to what they are doing?

    Interesting to see that companies allow employees to connect to social networks at work. MAkes me think back at the old days of Internet (1995ish) when companies restricted Internet access. Nowadays this would be unthinkable, as the web has become a major work productivity tool (and time drain for most overwhelmed by the information at their fingertips).

    Enterprise Transformation is a popular term used to describe efforts on the part of senior executives to improve the overall performance of their businesses. Of all the terms that have been tossed around recently, it probably is the best description of how executives understand what it is they are doing. IBM suggests:

    1. Start a movement - Transformation requires the active engagement of employees.
    2. Establish clear transformation governance - The initial energy of a new initiative fades, and the effort ultimately succeeds only if there is a clear structure in place to see that goals are accomplished.
    3. Transformation requires a data-driven discussion - It's important to gather volumes of data and then to analyze it to track what is working and where there are problems.
    4. Radically simplify business process - IBM focused on eliminating, standardizing and automating work, with a special focus on eliminating complexities that impede integration efforts.
    5. Invest in transformative innovation - New technologies, new platforms, new approaches can't solve every problem but they can accelerate your processes and enable your people.
    6. Embody creative leadership - IBM surveys suggested that the number one leadership quality needed for successive transformations was creativity—which IBM went on to associate with "broader and deeper thinking of systems and patterns, the ability to handle uncertainty with optimism and enthusiasm, more openness to a multitude of cultural differences, meaningful collaboration, and a spirit of restless reinvention." This may sound like fuzzy stuff, but IBM proceeded to pioneer classes in these leadership skills.

    Read the article in PDF to get insights on how IBM achieved its enterprise transformation. Not purely a digital one, I believe it does highlight important aspects that digital transformation must go through.

    Google remains "the" search destination so making sure your web properties appear near the top of search results is even more important than ever.

    Not charging for sales tax is a major price "advantage" that online pure plays have over brick and mortar retailers. By charging sales tax, Amazon sees this price advantage shrink but with warehouses that are closer to customers, it can reduce shipping costs and offer next day and even soon same day delivery.

    Looking forward to the rest of the series.

    Based on the idea that security is improved if you are required to provide 2 pieces of information. In most cases, it means something you know (a password) and something you have (a cell phone). Takes a bit of effort to setup but essential for anybody or corporation that is seriously going digital.

    Not easy to sell food online and turn a profit, even in the UK where the market is ripe and order volumes are high.

    Going digital often means more time in front of a computer. This means a lot of time sitting at a desk. Transformation thus also must take shape in the design of office spaces. I have been embracing the standup station for 15 months now and found numerous benefits. Although I also find that it takes serious commitment as the transition from sitting to standing may be too much for some. I suggest going "hybrid" for a while: few hours on your feet, the balance on a chair.

    Metro loyalty program represents a major digital transformation that goes way beyond being able to track members  and offer them rewards. 

    Digital transforms the way people market themselves and look for jobs. Are businesses changing the way they recruit to adapt to this new reality?

    Always people-process-technology!

    Interesting overview of how GE had to transform itself from traditional skillset to a digital one with the advent of social networks.

    This guys was wearing an anckle bracelet but we can easily apply the same process to cell phones and apply the same principle to employees that are suspected of theft or of not being where they are supposed to be. For now, access to the GPS data in cell phones is a bit cumbersome but I would expect that digital businesses may require their employees to add special tracking apps in their phones - especially company-provided ones - and keep a record of their personnel.

    I've said this before: looks like Amazon will use grocery delivery to put trucks on the road and offer same-day or next-day delivery while bypassing UPS-FedEx and other carriers altogether. This will both bring down its costs (delivery accounts for 10-15% of the online costs) but also may prove that having a physical store presence is not required for online pure plays. We'll see...

    Useful insights

    Many digital elements to watch for.

    Interesting predictions that all point in the direction of a digital transformation acceleration in 2013.



    This is a trend. At NRF show, Dell presented marketvine, a stealth project that allows customers to creation collections of products for sale. It is a new model for retailers to watch for.

    Recruiting transformation can lead to better, faster, less expensive process. But it also means, as is the case with Via Capitale, to change the way recruitment is performed to leverage the digital medium and the options to connect directly with people.

    Benefits of a reference architecture is highlighted here with a good comparison between legacy and SOA.

    According to an article in October in InformationWeek, “ABI Research has projected that by 2016, wearable wireless medical device sales will reach more than 100 million devices annually. The market for wearable sports and fitness-related monitoring devices is projected to grow as well, reaching 80 million device sales by 2016.”

    With advances in wearable devices and the ubiquity of smartphones, it is essential for businesses with workers in dangerous conditions (mining, construction, etc.) to equip their teams with such devices. This may help prevent injuries but also reduce insurance premiums.

    Interestingly, digital transformation of HR appears to shift their role from being a recruitment hub - which can easilly and more efficiently be decentralized with the presence of social networks - to the facilitator of the enterprise network. This will require changes to processes and a reskilling of many in the HR field, so I expect this will take a long time to materialize.

    Again something to consider when going digital. Better than passwords, yet it does not solve all the security issues and concerns...

    Security remains at the center of concerns when companies go digital. Of course, going digital incresases the surface of attack and the probability of exposing private information to the general public. However, risks must be weighed against the benefits that digital brings.

    France numbers do show progression for eCommerce in terms of $ amounts continue to increase at a rate of 20% a year: this means total transactions are doubling every 4 years! 

    Also some interesting facts you may or may not already be aware of.

    Often I get asked what the cost is to do things digital. 18 weeks at 6K$/week yields an average mobile app cost of 108K$ which is on track with other insights we have gathered.

    As I said, everyone is looking at what MAazon has done and wondering if what walmart will do with its digital transformation.

    Interesting bridge between NPS and social sources. As you transform your business to leverage social media, you need new tools and processes to monitor what is being said.

    Main message appers to be that consumers now have technologies that give them information everywhere. So your brand must also be present everywhere. That now means digital world more and more.

    social Q&A is all about increasing collaboration and flattening the enterprise. Quora is a great resource in the public space, and other solutions also exist as private spaces.

    The single biggest reason for not shopping online, cited by 32% of those who don’t, is that they want to purchase in person so they can see merchandise and avoid returns. But 26% are concerned that personal information will be used fraudulently, 21% that credit or debit card data could be used to commit fraud, and 18% that personal information will be sold to other merchants. 20% say shipping costs are too high.

    Sounds about right: people still want to touch and see things - thus the "showrooming" wave we are seing - and are afraid their credit card will be stolen.

    Trello changes the project management by bringing a simple solution based on cards and the Kanban approach. they have 1M after 16 months and they provide a free solution.


    Trick with Trello is simplicity. It replaces a whiteboard with post-it notes. It is visible on multiple monitors, iPad, iPhone, Android. It just works.

    Sales are being transformed, not eliminated, with digital collaboration technologies. It can help cut costs and improve productivity not only with high tech companies like Verizon or Rosetta Stone but also with Ulrich Barn builders which sells barns and sheds, made out of wood and other real world materials.

    Lots of tools out there to perform ethical competitive intelligence for the digital worker to gather facts freely available on the web. Also makes you think about how much surface of attack your company is making available out there on the web for others to see...

    416 pages just shows how varied the field of eCommerce has become and how difficult it is for most business users to find their way when they want to go digital and sell online. Funny that this is a "paper" catalog. But a ebook also exists.

    Robin Good: How can journalists and small news companies become/remain profitable in the years to come? What are the business moels that news-based outlets and professionals can consider adopting in their effort to become/remain sustainable?


    A joint project of the University of Tampere, USC Annenberg and Waseda University in Tokyo, has decided to tackle these very set of questions by researching existing journalistic startups and analyzing their approach and results.


    "...there has been much lively discussion about the future of journalism and its business model. However, there has been little research or academic focus to date on the business models for for-profit journalism startups..."


    From the report Introduction: "Overall, advertising models that supported media offline seem – for the most part – unable to do so online.

    Most attempts to shift business models online fail as they trade “old media dollars for new media pennies” (Nichols and McChesney 2009).


    The fundamental trade on scarcity of space cannot hold value in abundant space. Yet advertising remains one of the bedrocks of revenue for most media organisations."


    "This report outlines how online-based journalistic startups have created their economical locker in the evolving media ecology.


    The research introduces the ways that startups have found sustainability in the markets of nine countries. The work is based on 69 case studies from Europe, USA and Japan.


    The case analysis shows that business models can be divided into two groups.


    a) The storytelling-oriented business models are still prevalent in our findings. These are the online journalistic outlets that produce original content – news and stories for audiences.


    b) But the other group, service-oriented business models, seems to be growing. This group consists of sites that don’t try to monetize the journalistic content as such but rather focuson carving out new functionality.


    The project was able to identify several revenue sources that include:  1. advertising,

    2. paying for content,

    3. affiliate marketing,

    4. donations,

    5. selling data or services,

    6. organizing events,

    7. freelancing and

    8. training or

    9. selling merchandise.


    Where it was hard to evidence entirely new revenue sources, it was however possible to find new ways in which revenue sources have been combined or reconfigured.


    The report also offers practical advice for those who are planning to start their own journalistic site."



    Useful. Informative. Pragmatical. 9/10



    Report: Table of Contents - http://www.submojour.net/archives/989/table-of-contents/


    Full report (PDF): http://tampub.uta.fi/handle/10024/66378





    Great reference to help start your digital transformation if you are in the journalism business. Very interesting collection of actual examples of business models exploring the different ways to make journalism websites profitable. goes way beyong advertising model.

    No surprise, advertising digital transformation is well under way and accounts for a substantial part of the total already. Growth, however, is predicted to slow down and stay at 11% in Canada for example.

    Mostly used for information providing, some translate into actual sales for Verizon, Scandinavian airlines, The Melt restaurant.

    (in french) To me this is a governance problem that is hiding under the cover of cloud computing and new software as a service. In most organization, licences are not managed centrally and with pay-per-use, you know only after the fact how much something will cost you. And it is all in OPEX, which could hurt many bottom lines if not careful. But other than planning carefully and managing centrally, I am not aware of software solutions that help manage the number of licences and their costs globally.

    Digital transformation will impact HR and work in general, enabling workers to work from home and collaborate virtually as contractual workers, not employees. This has already started in IT, HR, management, health care according to McKinsey.

    Finally it is here. Looks like fulfillment centers on both ends of the country (Ontario and BC) was a requirement to keep the shipping costs competitive. Now we can only expect this to increase Amazon adoption and market share in Canada.

    pure play online retailers - those with no physical stores - are now looking for ways to reduce the friction points when buying online. One of them is the immediacy of buying something in a store. EBay is obviously experimenting with ways to bridge the digital divide between sellers and buyers. But does it make any economic sense?

    Great way to investigate a private company

    Slide 9 : McKinsey presents very convincing arguments to show how Amazon has addressed almost all of the top reasons that prevent consumers from buying online vs. in-store. This should be required reading for all store owners and managers during startegic planning season.

    The SaaS software market will increase 25 percent in 2013 to $59 billion, a 25 percent increase. In 2014, the market is expected to total $75 billion. Forrester uses the term “smart computing” to define apps that, for instance, provide direct access to data for decision-making. It also includes data analytics and business intelligence in the category.


    The research firm forecasts the smart computing software market to be $41 billion in 2013, increasing to $48 billion in 2014. According to Forrester, these smart-process apps overlap with SaaS products “because the browser-based access model for SaaS products works better for collaboration among internal and external participants than behind-the-firewall deployments.” As a corollary, these smart computing products, like SaaS, are growing far faster than the overall software market.

    Also noteworthy, HR is +9% and ePurchasing +10%

    Not surprising QR codes that worked involved coupons (i.e. free money) or  inherently mobile device usage (i.e. London transportation). So there is a place for QR codes, just not everywhere.

    Not easy making the digital transformation as it requires structure and methodology that are more part of the IT curriculum than the makreting one.

    It is the season to make those predictions again. Few surprises...

    Amazing description of the sophistication behind the Blackhole malware and "service" where affiliates are paid for redirecting users to be infected!

    Walmart is leveraging customers’ smartphones as one more way to make a sale.

    And the key is to give customers reasons to use Walmart’s app while they’re in a physical store.

    Walmart’s stores are “geo-fenced,” said Wire.com, so the location-aware app enters “store mode” when a customer enters through the door.

    Once their phones are in store mode, customers are given an interactive version of the weekly on-sale circular for that store. Customers can see what’s new in the store and can scan bar codes with the phone’s camera for prices and lists of everything in a shopper’s cart so they know their total before getting to the checkout.

    Wired.com points out that Walmart has effectively lured customer into two stores at once as the Walmart app interface lets you “flip” between the two stores–physical and digital.

    If NYC can do it than why don't more companies follow the lead? Moreover, digital transformation of the NYC, open city and the introduction of mobile apps such as 311 NYC are key to empowering its citizens, no?

    The only Dropbox Security Strategy: restrict access and encrypt all data? Does not sound like a very good solution to me as people will always find way around the controls. Better to keep it open but have clear reports on the actual files being transferred and stored on the cloud?

    No surprise, Canada is behind on eCommerce. Canada is 5-6years behind US+UK+DE in eCommerce, with Internet to account for 20% of holiday purchases. Interesting that Lowes hardware store was able to setup and launch an eCommerce website in only 8 months.

    Ever wondered what "big data" is all about? Well Google Flu is a great example: it looks at searches for flu symptoms and reports the results, often providing results before the "official" ones....

    What are the business opportunities here?

    Good alternative to writing down the passwords in a notepad or using the same password over and over...

    Interesting presentation of the IBM cloud reference architecture and its ties to EA.

    Precursor view from a Canadian visionary.

    A bit dated (2005), this University research highlights the supply chain transformation from Industrial Age to Information Age. 

    Very good overview of reasons why passwords fail. We must go beyond the password and encourage solution providers to build more advanced and seamless protection systems. 

    Ging digital means you trust computer systems with more and more private and confidential information, Again here, one of the reasons why passwords fail. We must go beyond the password and encourage solution providers to build more advanced and seamless protection systems. Here, evidence shows that even the most complex passwords will fail when hackers can simply ask for them to be reset using publicly available information on Facebook and other websites.

    What happens when corporations do not make the digital transformation fast enough and wait until the market has completely shifted to catch-up: shareholders have to pay the price, or the company goes bankrupt. Was the same for Netflix vs Blockbuster. Expect more of the same in the future.  Amazon vs ? Who will it be?....

    Simple: knowledge workers that are not computer friendly or live inside of outlook for most of their days will be better off with office365. Others, especially those infrequent email users with minimal office needs - word, excel, powerpoint - will find google apps sufficient for their daily tasks.

    Along with a Chief Digital Officer, looks like the corporations that really want to embrace digital transformation need to think in terms of the creation of a digital unit, ither controlled by IT or marketing. Interesting...

    Internet is a new "property" that must be anaged like any other corporate asset. In particular domain names, which often are assigned to individual users and are not renewed in time. Domains must also be managed, so that the naming conventions are appropriate and easilly tracked and crawled. Along with it, analytics should be created to report on usage and traffic. I've seen corporations plan marketing launches without proper domain names, only to find the URL is not available.... after thousands of leaflets had been printed!

    digital transformation impacts both top line and bottom line

    • using email rather than direct mail for engagement offers increased opt-in rates by nearly 300 percent
    • cut costs by decreasing direct mail
    • increase enrollment rates by using email more aggressively
    • enhance web experience on pages that could affect call volume, pilots are already saving over $20 million per year
    • driving customers into deeper digital relationships paid off in higher lifetime value.

    80% of business executives cite better value as the a key driver for choosing cloud applications

    what could a new phone bring to businesses?

    The trend is clear: B2B is now catching up with B2B approaches, methods and tools.

    For once, actually shows how big data translates into business value. Very useful charts and examples.

    Couldn't agree more: process+people before technology!

    Amazing insights into Amazon's business model and the threat to brick-n-mortar retailers.

    hyper localization has been the buzzword for a while with the likes of foursquare. With limited benefits for users to date. Will grocery coupons and specials be the killer app, maybe not (unless coupons become personalized and perceived $$ value is substantial), but it is one step in the right direction.

    Online eCommerce Achille's heal is delivery. It has been for a long time and now a lot is being done to try and address it. Pick-up, as opposed to home delivery, is one option being seriously considered. In its many forms: pick-up lockers, speedy drive-thrus (Leclerc Drive in France), etc. And yes, they all attack the established delivery services: FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.